December 2, 2013

Beta Test Object Oriented MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisors

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As we reported way back in August, MetaQuotes have been working on adding objected oriented programming to MetaTrader 4. They originally suggested that a version of the MetaTrader 4 terminal supporting OOP EAs would become available in September, but that's not how things have worked out in practice!

After a long and frustrating wait, it has come to our attention that it is now possible to beta test object oriented MQL4 expert advisors on a MetaQuotes demo account. Here's the instructions on how to do so, translated from the original Russian by Ovo on the MQL4 forum:

  1. Create a new and clean MT4 installation in a new folder. You may need to Download MetaTrader 4 Terminal Installer (455 Kb)
  2. Try to login, with the server field set to demo.metaquotes.net:444 (which will not succeed)
  3. Apply for a new demo account, with the demo.metaquotes.net:444 server selected.
  4. Shut down the terminal. Reopen this installation of the MT4 terminal. Update of beta commences and you'll get the new beta installed.

I tried that, which worked as predicted, and I now find myself looking at MetaTrader 4 build 551 dated 29th November 2013! Having finally managed to properly test our first draft of an MQL4 object oriented expert advisor we discovered a couple of little bugs, so I've now posted a modified MQL4 version of object oriented Ray the Random Robot over on the Trading Gurus Community Forum.

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Filed under Trading Platforms by Jim #

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Comments on Beta Test Object Oriented MetaTrader 4 Expert Advisors Leave a Comment

December 15, 2013
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Jim @ 8:03 pm #

MetaQuotes have now announced (in English!) on the MQL4 forum that:

We start the public test of the new MetaTrader 4 terminal and invite all traders to join it in order to try all its features and help developers to correct the errors.

Amongst the long list of bullet points, these caught my eye:

  • MQL4 language for programming trading strategies has been substantially revised and its functionality has been brought closer to that of MQL5. Classes and structures have been added and the language syntax has been extended up to С++ level allowing developers to implement all the advantages of object-oriented programming.
  • Expert Advisor developers have gained new opportunities in a single MetaEditor development environment – debugging, profiling, code completion, etc.
  • Changed the terminal data structure and storage location – now, the data of each installed terminal is stored in a separate terminal data folder.
  • The time of processing the trade requests (especially the first one) has been considerably reduced as there is no need to wait for connection to the trade server being established any more. In order for the new processing algorithm to be operable, the trade server should also be updated
January 29, 2014
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Jim @ 7:23 pm #

MetaQuotes have announced that

A major MQL4 IDE update in MetaTrader 4 [will take place on] February 3rd 2014

Of course, we have made every effort to ensure compatibility with older MQL4 applications. However, some issues may still occasionally occur. If you have encountered an error while compiling a new code, please inform us in the appropriate thread of the official MQL4 forum.

We also urge you to pay special attention to the following points:

1) In the new build, the file structure for storing the source codes has changed. Previously, all MQL4 programs were stored in Program Files\\ root directory. Now, they should be stored in Users\\MQL4\. Thus, if a program has an absolute pathname for some file, you may run into an error message in the compiler. To avoid this, specify a relative pathname in the source code and re-compile it. The data folder can be accessed via File -> Open Data Folder.

2) All old EX4 files will work correctly in the new terminal assuming that they are not changed. In order to maintain compatibility, the runtime environment copy of the previous MQL4 version has been implemented providing operability of all older codes.

Find out more about all changes in the new MetaTrader 4 build here. We strongly recommend that you have a close look at the provided material.

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