They just made some very bad decisions early on. In my opinion the whole project MT5 is one big mistake and pure waste of resources.
We can all see the results. MT5 is already 8 years old, and yet there is very little demand for this platform. It is obvious that the majority of traders and coders do not like this platform. ( And of course there are serious reasons for this!)
In my opinion all they had to do is to continue to upgrade MT4. Just add new functions, improve the language, make the platform compatible with other markets and so on.....
I don't understand why they decided to make separate platform. It doesn't make any sense.
You correctly pointed 2 of the main killers of MT5
1. Complete lack of backward compatibility.
2. Over-complicated new language.
The "new" MQL5 language is basically the old MQL4 minus everything which made mql4 and MT4 great. All of the simple and efficient functions have been replaced by over complicated functions and OOP junk. WHY??? No one knows.
if it ain't broke, don't fix it
Of course you can still program the same things, but with the new language is real nightmare. You have to write 2-3 times more code for the same thing. And especially working with positions, orders, deal, and trades is total mess compared to MT4 which is super simple and efficient.
With a mql4 all you have is ORDERS.
Hi
it seems there are signs out there that MT4 could be shutdown this year ?
This would not be an issue if MT5 code was simpler instead of beeing more complicated for end users.
In MT5, you cannot call directly and easily an indicator function to obtains the datas, you must first use the createindicator function, and after each access must go through a copybuffer procedure, with each time checking the errors that can be returned.
And of course MT4 EA code will not be compatible.
This is total nonsense.
Usually in the software industry you always have an upward compatibility (softwares running under windows 7 are still working when moving to windows 10), and new releases are intended to make life easier for end users, not trying to discourage them from upgrading.
Why do you think so much people are still using MT4 and don't want to migrate to MT5 ? There is a good reason.
If MT5 is kept "as is" and MT4 is shutdown, this will be a huge shock for many end-users, who will also complain to their brokers.
MT4 shutdown can only force and encourage people to migrate to alternative platforms like PRT.
Also, MT5 code complexity will reduce the number of end-users who will prefer easier langages.
This will reduce the total number of Metatrader end-users, and will encourage brokers to provide their private system.
More there are users, more the platform has a chance to be adopted by brokers and act as a reference.
I think Metaquotes is killing itself and I don't understand they don't realize it.
Too bad