Hello,

I use a separate development folder for coding my strategies, mainly because the projects may become more complex later and I want to keep them under standalone version control. After compilation, a post-build script copies the generated .dll file into Zorro’s Strategy folder, here's how.

This workflow normally works as expected.
However, after I included the Eval Shell (<evars.h> and the other stuff to _optimize), built one script successfully and try to run,
I get the following error:



As I see Zorro’s built-in compiler needs access to the source .cpp file in order to extract the _optimize variables and compile the individual strategy variants. In my setup, however, the source file is not located in Zorro’s Strategy folder. It also does not have the expected strategy name, since the entry file is called main.cpp.

Is there a supported way to use the Evaluation Shell with externally compiled strategies and a separate source directory?
I would prefer to keep the Zorro Strategy folder clean while preserving my Git-based workflow, especially for potentially large, multi-file codebases.

There's a lot of ways to do this.

One way is to place a symbolic link to the header (or header directory) in the Strategy folder. So you can do this in your script:

or this:
For this, you will need Microsoft's mklink command, which is documented here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/mklink

My project already compiles successfully with external headers. The problem is that the Eval Shell appears to open the strategy source file itself, such as 3.cpp, in order to parse the _optimize variables. In my setup, that source file is not located in Zorro’s default Strategy folder.

I also tried selecting [Change folder] from the Action dropdown and then choosing main.cpp from my custom project directory. Zorro finds and compiles the file successfully, but after that the Eval Shell still cannot open the cpp file. See the attached screenshot.

I also configured ZorroFix.ini as follows:



After restarting Zorro:

- Zorro points to the correct folder at start
- I can select "main"
- I click Test
- the script compiles successfully
- however, I still get the same error:



AndrewAMD, I understand that your suggestion could also be extended to creating a symbolic link for the entire Strategy folder, pointing it to an external project directory. That could work, but I don't see it as a sustainable development setup, especially when working with multiple strategies. Thanks for the idea, it will be my Plan B.

Is there a more robust way to use the Evaluation Shell with externally managed, multi-file strategy projects?

Plan B is working, screenshot attached.

Still looking for Plan A.

I checked eval.c and eval2.c. The problem is that the Strategy folder is hardcoded:


Could you please expose the currently selected Strategy folder through trading.h -> variables.h?


Then the VARLIST definitions in eval.c and eval2.c could use:


This would allow the Eval Shell script to use the folder defined in the ZorroFix.ini or selected through "[Change Folder]", instead of always assuming that the folder is named “Strategy” in Zorro root.