Hi everyone.
As you all probably know we're lately witnessing a change in MetaQuotes business model and focus.
Most of the MQL4 coders out there are quite permeable to moving to MQL5 but I see no alternative for the following reasons:
- The language structure has changed and adapted as smoothly as possible by MQ we can't ignore that
- MetaQuotes is hiking their MT4 Maintenance Fees and server related fees, making it down to 4x cheaper for brokers to work with MT5
- MT5 platforms sales and servers deploying is increasing at an always faster pace, as we reached the 100 MT5 friendly brokers over the last months, and the brokers themselves are starting to advertise MT5 (making it more visible on their websites than MT4. Most of the serious brokers I've ever worked with now offer it)
- It's not even possible to download MT4 from MQ anymore and they've given up on bringing new changes to it (which would make it too close to becoming and MT5 like)
- cTrader is (from my point of view) an amazing alternative but suffers from a very low user and community base. cAlgo is less alike MQL4 than MQL5 is which makes it harder as well for coders to shift towards it
I've been a faithful MT4 user and MQL4 coder but we live in a groovy world where everything gets to change at some point.
Looking at the bright side of the migration:
- 64bits platform (meaning full usage of your processor)
- Market depth
- Many More Timeframes on MT5 than MT4
- Hedging is now allowed for non US regulated users
- Soon to come: Native custom charts (renko & more)
- MQ implemented a much better Backtester to MT5 for the ones who're not aware of it. Free native tick data, multiple pairs backtest, many more native TFs
The very annoying part remains the language. By the user side, the platform is so similar to MT4 that the adaptation isn't hard.
HOWEVER The transition doesn't have to be brutal for coders if we work together on what I'd call "MQL4 libraries" and "MQL4 inclusions", allowing us to adapt our codes in a proper maner and in a matter of minutes.
What do I mean by "MQL4 Libraries & Inclusions"? Using the MQL5 documentation (5k pages..) content and what users already brought to the "MQL4 to MQL5" content such as there https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/81 (NB: not udpated for latest MQL5 but still great) we can build Libraries that will allow us to use functions the way we would do in MQL4 but in MQL5.
Here is an example:
This is obviously a quite simple sample. But this would make us coders save so much time on more complex functions (i.e. arrays tweaks)
I'm quite sure many coders around FF already have such libraries/inclusions.
Our objective would be to build a big common one so that all FF coders can lay on it and happily move towards MT5 without further disruption.
Looking forward to hear from enthusiastic members
Edo
As you all probably know we're lately witnessing a change in MetaQuotes business model and focus.
Most of the MQL4 coders out there are quite permeable to moving to MQL5 but I see no alternative for the following reasons:
- The language structure has changed and adapted as smoothly as possible by MQ we can't ignore that
- MetaQuotes is hiking their MT4 Maintenance Fees and server related fees, making it down to 4x cheaper for brokers to work with MT5
- MT5 platforms sales and servers deploying is increasing at an always faster pace, as we reached the 100 MT5 friendly brokers over the last months, and the brokers themselves are starting to advertise MT5 (making it more visible on their websites than MT4. Most of the serious brokers I've ever worked with now offer it)
- It's not even possible to download MT4 from MQ anymore and they've given up on bringing new changes to it (which would make it too close to becoming and MT5 like)
- cTrader is (from my point of view) an amazing alternative but suffers from a very low user and community base. cAlgo is less alike MQL4 than MQL5 is which makes it harder as well for coders to shift towards it
I've been a faithful MT4 user and MQL4 coder but we live in a groovy world where everything gets to change at some point.
Looking at the bright side of the migration:
- 64bits platform (meaning full usage of your processor)
- Market depth
- Many More Timeframes on MT5 than MT4
- Hedging is now allowed for non US regulated users
- Soon to come: Native custom charts (renko & more)
- MQ implemented a much better Backtester to MT5 for the ones who're not aware of it. Free native tick data, multiple pairs backtest, many more native TFs
The very annoying part remains the language. By the user side, the platform is so similar to MT4 that the adaptation isn't hard.
HOWEVER The transition doesn't have to be brutal for coders if we work together on what I'd call "MQL4 libraries" and "MQL4 inclusions", allowing us to adapt our codes in a proper maner and in a matter of minutes.
What do I mean by "MQL4 Libraries & Inclusions"? Using the MQL5 documentation (5k pages..) content and what users already brought to the "MQL4 to MQL5" content such as there https://www.mql5.com/en/articles/81 (NB: not udpated for latest MQL5 but still great) we can build Libraries that will allow us to use functions the way we would do in MQL4 but in MQL5.
Here is an example:
Inserted Code
// --- MQL4 function to return the Account Equity: double K = AccountEquity(); //--- MQL5 function: double K = AccountInfoDouble(ACCOUNT_EQUITY); //--- MQL4 function (stored in a Library) allowing us to call the MQL4 function in our MQL5 code: double AccountEquity(){ double value = AccountInfoDouble(ACCOUNT_EQUITY); return(value); }
This is obviously a quite simple sample. But this would make us coders save so much time on more complex functions (i.e. arrays tweaks)
I'm quite sure many coders around FF already have such libraries/inclusions.
Our objective would be to build a big common one so that all FF coders can lay on it and happily move towards MT5 without further disruption.
Looking forward to hear from enthusiastic members
Edo
You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.