Frequently Asked Questions
Can you make a binary package for Qtstalker ?
No. Binary packages are so problematic now that they are a
nightmare for maintainers. I will leave it up to the distributions to
provide binaries and support them. Besides, learning how to compile
from source makes you a better person, brings world peace and makes you
more attractive to women.
Qtstalker is now included in the Debian distribution thanks to the
efforts of Marco van Zwetselaar. Marco is the maintainer for the binary
package.
There are also RPM's available from Redhat and other RPM based
distributions. Use rpmfind to locate them.
What platforms are supported ?
Currently, Linux compatible, FreeBSD and Mac OS X systems are
supported. Some
people have tried
with some success on Solaris, IRIX and most unices. I'm afraid I cannot
support any other platforms other than Linux compatible systems simply
because I
do not have the time or resources to maintain other operating systems
for testing.
So,
if you want to port it, I can help as much as I am able. Due to ethical
and political feelings, I will not help or support anyone trying to do
a win32 port. The goal of this project is not to provide win32 users
more gold bars for their prisons. So endith the lesson...
My favorite indicator(s) are not included in Qtstalker, what can I
do ?
Bribes of beer or cash tend to work best, but you might also try asking
me.
I would be glad to create a plugin for you provided you supply me with
a
formula and you agree to include it into Qtstalker under the GPL.
Another option
is if you don't want to GPL your formula, you may contract me to write
a
proprietary plugin for you for a fee.
Of course, you can always develop the new indicator yourself. Just
copy
the code from an existing indicator that does similar things. Please
consider
contributing the new indicator back to this project. Everyone benefits.
I'm a day trader, how come there is no intraday charting functions ?
There is currently basic support for tick data limited to a HH:MM:SS
resolution. However, there are currently no quote plugins that download
free tick data. (AFAIK there are none) It is left up to the user to
provide quotes from a data
service on an individual basis. You may use the CSV quote plugin to
import ascii files with tick data.
Does Qtstalker handle stock splits ?
Yes, but they have to be handled manually using the edit chart dialog.
Another method is to delete the chart that had a split, create the
chart with the yahoo
plugin and then update the data. This will pull in all the new
corrected data. NOTE: the yahoo
quote plugin allows the user to use the 'adjusted' price, however this
is not the actual trading price but an adjusted one for chart sanity.
Where does the name Qtstalker come from ?
Well if you really must know...The Qt part comes from the GNU/Linux
tradition of prefixing an X app with the GUI toolkit used. The stalker
part is just cheesy word play stemming from the idea of "stock search"
or "stalking stocks". I also just like the word "stalker".
In english, Qt sounds like 'cutie' which is slang for 'a cute woman'.
So now we have 'cutie stalker' which in all honesty was completely
unintentional. Now if someone were to write a 'cutie stalker' indicator
plugin we just might really be on to something ;-)
Why don't you make this into a KDE app ?
I want to keep things as simple, efficient and portable as possible. Qt
does everything I need.
There are alot of plugins I don't use taking up space. How do I get
rid
of them ?
If you are sure there are plugins you don't need, then all you have to
do
is delete them from the /usr/lib/qtstalker/* directory. Simple as that.
Be sure you don't delete the directory itself, just the plugin *.so
file.
Why don't you use SQL for data storage?
Two reasons, speed and simplicty. Once again I cite the KISS (keep it
simple, stupid!) philosophy. You can't beat Berkeley DB btree functions
for ease
of use and speed. Using SQL would just add another layer of
requirements and speed penalties. It also means more
administration hassles for the user to set up accounts, tables, logs
etc. Why complicate things? With DB, each chart is it's own compact,
flexible,
dynamic, self-contained db. Blows SQL away in this respect.
How about a Mac OS X port?
Currently it is possible to compile a (mostly) working qtstalker on OS
X. However there are a few minor problems that are still not solved.
The user community is actively working to solve the remaining bugs.
Upgrading from version 0.29 to version 0.30 problems.
With 0.30, qtstalker has removed the built in version of Berkeley 2.7.7
and now requires the user to install a version equal to or greater than
4.1. This was done to resolve upcoming issues with 64 bit
systems. Unfortunately the Berkeley DB 4.* files are not backwards
compatible with 2.7.7. What this means is that any charts created with
qtstalker 0.29 or earlier will not work with future versions of
qtstalker.
There was also a restructuring of the chart storage directories in
order to better organize and increase app performance. This will also
cause confusion for the user, and render many charts unavailable for
update. Any user groups created will also be broken due to directories
being moved around.
The simplest way to fix this is to delete your ~/.qt/qtstalkerrc file
and your ~/Qtstalker directory and all of its contents. Yes this means
you will lose all of your data and settings. There have been so many
changes and improvements since 0.29 that it would be too difficult and
complicated to create an upgrade workaround that would be prone to
errors in implementing it for each user. We are talking hours of work
for some.
What happened to most of the indicators? They seem to be missing.
Many of the indicators that were once individual plugins in previous
versions of qtstalker have been replaced by the TALIB plugin. This
plugin now contains most of the indicators you will use. Have a look at
the docs for the TALIB indicator for a more detailed description.
