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Date/Time: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:45:14 +0000



[Locked] - Notice: Suggestions (Currently not accepting)

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[2015-03-27 02:52:41]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Hello,

We have occasionally put out a notice like this and we have thought of saying something recently but did not, but we will say something.

Recently we have been getting a large number of suggestions. They seem to be coming fast and furious.

In most cases, there just is no hope of any consideration of these, and they are briefly looked at and not logged.

We have a lot of critical development we are working on. Definitely a lot of small new features, and a lot of critical development which would not be categorized as new features. But important things for the core program.

Update: Part of what we are doing is catching up on long overdue development which has already been requested.

When it comes to a feature request, which is not in high demand, two things have to be met if it really is important to a particular user. They have to be willing to pay in part for the time to develop it and we need to have the time to develop it. In most cases someone does not want to pay for it and we do not have the time.

Usually the way these payments are handled, is that it would be less than 50% of the cost since the feature becomes part of Sierra Chart. The reason that we sometimes will request a payment is a way to ensure that the feature request that is not commonly asked for, is really important to someone. If it is not and they are not willing to pay anything for it, then it would not usually be worth our time especially with all that we have to do. You also need to consider that Sierra Chart is very inexpensive to begin with.

Also, if you do not have a direct paid Sierra Chart account and instead have an account through a reseller/affiliate, because we receive a significantly reduced price, this is another reason why we will require a payment for a feature request that is not normally going to be added to Sierra Chart. This is an fairness to our direct paid users and for all of the reasons already stated.

With as many suggestions we are seeing, most of them simply are not being considered at all. It is critical that we catch up on the development that is long overdue and get features done that have not been done for a long time now.

So please, avoid posting feature requests at this time.

Sometimes someone posts a feature request and hopes for an answer and hope that is going to be done right away. There is 0% possibility of this in many cases. We cannot possibly keep up with this. At this point, if you see your request marked as a "User Discussion" it means it was reviewed, and not logged.

Understand that we cannot possibly keep up with what is being suggested. Not even remotely close. More developers is also not a reasonable solution because it can lead to software problems and instability, inconsistencies and support difficulties for us and for the user. Our development team is growing, but only at a sustainable pace.

Adding a new feature requires development of that feature, debugging that feature, documenting that feature, making improvements to that feature being requested (which is inevitable), and supporting that feature by answering the numerous questions about it which inevitably get asked every which way possible. It is an immense task. As Sierra Chart continues to grow and be enhanced, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to support.

And it is for the reason above, is another reason, why is there a 0% chance, we are going to integrate to new data or Trading services suggested. It is the responsibility of those external services to adopt the DTC protocol:
http://DTCprotocol.org

Does it make sense, that we are the ones doing the integration to a proprietary protocol rather than the Data or Trading service integrating to a simple, well-organized, well-designed and open specification protocol?

It only makes sense the external service is adopting the DTC protocol and this is what we insist on. When we are asked to integrate to a Data or Trading service and the Data or Trading service and the customer expects us to do the integration, at this point we will not undertake that programming effort any longer. So please do not ask as it is not well taken.

We are happy to work with any Data or Trading service to encourage them to support the DTC Protocol.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2017-03-26 03:30:20
[2015-11-02 03:24:07]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Another reason we will not get involved with integrating to another Data or Trading service, is because of this story:
The Story of IG Markets and Sierra Chart. Classic Breach of Contract

For us to consider integration to an external service means that there must be very very good overwhelming reason to do, very high demand among users, the service wanting us to integrate as well, and the service has a quality well-designed interface that uses some standardization.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2015-11-03 04:58:01
[2015-11-10 02:56:57]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Our to do list is at least 2 years long. Please keep that in mind before making a suggestion because as we said, there probably is no hope or it is already on the suggestion list.

It is going to be at least a year, before we are in a position of clearing out a lot of the existing tasks.

We do not want to say do not make suggestions, but the purpose of this post is to understand that we may not respond to them and that some suggestions, many that we see, there is no chance of consideration.

Also we have a large user base and have received lots of suggestions over the years so it is clear to us what the priorities are and we are working on those areas of development which are important to the majority of our user base.

So for the most part, unless something is relatively simple to implement and a reasonable feature or critical improvement, we are at a point where we are already aware of what needs to be done and we do not need to hear about many more suggestions especially being we are not able to even handle them.

One area of development that has come up often is the storing of market depth data, and presenting the market depth data at each chart bar. That kind of capability will be coming in 2016.

We also want to say, that trading system optimization is an area of development that we have no plans to get involved with any time in the next two years.

We also believe in quality software development, so it is this reason why developing functionality in Sierra Chart is not very easy and time-consuming. We want a feature to be developed properly, efficiently and be well documented and properly designed. Not an easy task.

While others in this industry may come and go, or some in this industry may be substandard with what they do for example like with aspects of Interactive Brokers and we are not afraid to say so, we will always do our very best even though we are not always perfect.

Think very cautiously about before making a suggestion because if there are too many suggestions from an individual user, this is not well taken and is an unnecessary burden on us and only delays future development. This Support Board is not a place to be just simply be posting thoughts as they come to your mind without long and careful consideration and consideration to what is posted in this thread. This is not Twitter.

Also if you are new user, also understand that it is not a good idea to be making suggestions until you have been using Sierra Chart a while because they probably have already been made before. It is a matter of getting used to what we offer and accepting what we offer as it currently is. Put no reliance on upcoming features unless they are publicly stated to be coming.

Another way that we become aware of the needs of our users is through "how to" questions. If there is something that commonly users are asking how to do, it is not currently supported or it is not easily supported, then this is an area of development that we need to possibly work on in the future.

The most basic important need is reliable software, reliable access to trading on the various exchanges, and reliable, complete and accurate market data. This has been a major focus of ours and is one reason of the development of the DTC Protocol.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2016-05-28 04:41:59
[2016-04-24 07:06:37]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
In this thread we are also going to periodically update users as to major tasks being worked on.

The following tasks are going to be worked on over the next 1 to 3 months:

-New feature to store market depth data which can be used for replay and other features.
-New features to present historical market depth in a graphical way on the chart.
-Numerous small trading related items that have been requested and not yet complete, will be implemented. This includes some enhancements to automated trading and the Spreadsheet System for Trading study.
-Low level performance enhancements.
-Automatically updating of internal account information as it changes on the server side without having to restart Sierra Chart.
-New installer.

This is in addition to various other development occurring.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2016-05-07 06:52:21
[2017-04-11 17:55:10]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
We want to update users about our development progress.

In general, we are progressing probably at about 50 percent the speed of what we would like. Development is always far more involved than we expect especially being we have very high standards.

For example, we increased the number of chart drawing levels from 32 to 64 and that was quite an involved and time-consuming task, which had a lot of side effects and caused unexpected bugs. Now we find that we have to re-implement how the Tool Configuration / Chart Drawing Properties windows are implemented with multiple levels because the current implementation is terribly inefficient. So what would seem like a simple task, is very time-consuming and also costly.


We do know that we need to add a new developer, but for them trustworthy and reasonably helpful will take about a year. So this is a high priority for us, but it is not something we can just quickly accomplish.

We continue to see loads of suggestions and requests and people willing to pay for them. We just cannot handle them. Our load is far beyond at this point what we can handle. Some suggestions we can do in the short term, and some suggestions will not be seen for about two years or more.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
[2017-04-12 21:48:15]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
And once we have the new developer, new features we say may not be seen for a couple of years, should hopefully be seen earlier. This time safely could be cut down a about a half.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

Your definitive source for support. Other responses are from users. Try to keep your questions brief and to the point. Be aware of support policy:
https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

For the most reliable, advanced, and zero cost futures order routing, *change* to the Teton service:
Sierra Chart Teton Futures Order Routing
Date Time Of Last Edit: 2017-07-17 15:44:31

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