License Options
David McFarlane
mcfarla9 at msu.edu
Thu Nov 20 21:52:07 UTC 2008
Rick,
>David McFarlane wrote:
> > And if you do purchase EP2 Pro, make sure to save your new programs
> > in the non-Pro format unless you really use Pro features. There is a
> > way to make that the default if you look through the program, that is
> > how I always set it up (has to be done for each user account, though).
> > -- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>
>Hi David,
>
>This comment puzzled me a little--maybe you also explain this elsewhere,
>as you do for EP2 v EP2Pro, but if not I'd like to understand why you
>suggest the above. Is it for purposes of sharing scripts, or is there a
>pborlem or risk with using the EP2Pro format? Currently, I use the
>latter b/c Eprime always badgers me on whether I want to save the EP2
>file as EP2Pro (by the way, do PST take feedback still on EPrime? Or
>better yet, read this list? I am hopeful that the final v2 will fix some
>serious bugs and annoyances--for example, I can't see how to stop EPrime
>by default on opening popping up a dialog box asking what I want to do).
Your response gives me the opportunity to address a number of issues,
so this may take awhile and may bore a lot of people on the list, but
here goes...
In short...
This has been addressed in part at
http://groups.google.com/group/e-prime/browse_thread/thread/a1b59b9a2103e0ec/f83c8690dc977c08?lnk=gst&q=non-pro#f83c8690dc977c08
,
http://groups.google.com/group/e-prime/browse_thread/thread/faaccb1853426a7/62e06e022997663d?lnk=gst&q=non-pro#62e06e022997663d
,
http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Topic884-12-1.aspx ,
http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Topic914-13-1.aspx , and
http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Topic897-12-1.aspx
(I found these by going to the E-Prime Google Group and PST Forum and
running a search on "non-pro", but then I knew what I was looking
for). It is about sharing scripts, no other risk with the EP2 Pro
format. PST does still take feedback on EP2, you will need to
register using you license number and then post your concerns at the
PST Forum (http://support.pstnet.com/forum/ ), or submit a Web
support request. PST staff do take a look at this e-mail list, as
evidenced by their occasional replies. The main staff seem to be
Brandon Cernicky and Matt Lenhart. Of the two, Brandon seems the
more senior member. I will give you a few tips here about changing
the E-Prime settings to avoid annoyances.
At length...
Although I have said this elsewhere, I will lay it out again here. I
will use "EP2-base" to refer to the edition of EP2 that is *not* Pro
(see Footnote 1). Based on my own tests and confirmation with PST staff:
- An .ebs2 (E-Run) file generated by EP2-base *will* run in E-Run 2 Pro.
- An .ebs2 file generated by EP2 Pro *will* run in E-Run 2 base, at
least if it does not use any Pro features (I did not test any Pro features).
- An .es2 (E-Studio) file made in EP2-base *will* open in E-Studio Pro.
- Now the bad news: An .es2 file made in Pro will *not* (repeat,
*not*) open in E-Studio 2 base.
So the problem comes only if you ever want to collaborate on
*developing* (not just running) EP2 programs with another lab. If
you have EP2-base, and your collaborator sends you an E-Studio (.es2)
file that has been saved in the Pro format, then you will
not be able to open it for viewing, editing, or running, even if the
program does not use any Pro features. If they send you the
E-Run/E-Basic (.ebs2) file then you can still run the experiment (as
long as it does not use any Pro features), but you still cannot view
the code let alone edit it. Vice versa if you use EP2 Pro and your
collaborator uses EP2-base.
Thus my strategy to always spend the extra money to get EP2 Pro, *and
then*, whenever writing a new experiment, making sure to save the
program using the EP2-base file format.
That provides the broadest compatibility between the two editions of
EP2. If you do find that you need some feature from Pro, you can
always convert the EP2-base program to the Pro file format and go
from there. But so far once a .es2 file is saved in the Pro format
there is no way to convert it back to EP2-base format (although PST
could always provide that capability in a later revision).
Now, how to follow this strategy? The full story gets complex, but I
will give some setup details at the end to simplify this.
The rules go like this:
(1) Once loaded into E-Studio, File > Save will continue to save an
EP2 file in its current format, whether Pro or base (however, if you
want to be extra careful you can always use File > Save As... and
look at "Save as type").
(2) As you have found when you open an existing EP2-base file, by
default EP2 Pro will ask whether you want to maintain the EP2-base
file format or convert it to the Pro file format. (Nothing
interesting or useful happens when you open an existing EP2 Pro file.)
(3) When you start E-Studio, or start a new program (File > New), EP2
Pro will bring up a dialog box ("New E-Prime 2.0 Experiment") of
template files in both Pro and EP2-base formats.
So in short you want to start files in the EP2-base format, and then
maintain that without any annoyances or opportunities for mistakes.
Let's start with rule (3). When you start E-Studio or start a new
program (File > New), what appears in the template dialog box are
just ordinary EP2 files that sit in a special directory, namely
C:\Program Files\PST\E-Prime 2.0\Templates\ (may be somewhere else
depending on your setup, but you get the idea). You may put whatever
EP2 files you like there, and they will be added to the templates
dialog box when you start E-Studio or start a new program. I like to
remove the "Basic.es2" and "Basic (Professional).es2" files and leave
the "Blank.es2" and "Blank (Professional).es2" files. If you want to
make it harder to start a new program in the Pro format, just remove
all the "...(Professional).es2" files from the Templates
folder. Remember, you can always convert them to Pro later if
needed. Once you load any EP2-base format file, rule (1) takes over,
and you are set. (Note that clicking cancel from the template dialog
does the same as selecting "Blank (Professional).es2", even if that
file has been removed.)
Now on to rule (2). By default, when you open an existing EP2-base
file EP2 Pro will ask whether you want to maintain the EP2-base file
format or convert it to the Pro file format. You will want to select
Maintain and click OK. But before you do this, if you select "Always
perform this operation when opening E-Prime 2.0 files" then it will
change a program setting so that you will not be nagged again (I will
come back to this). Rule (1) takes over again after you load the
EP2-base file without converting, and you are all set.
Now to make this easy and less prone to mistakes: Go to Tools >
Options, and in the General tab, go down to E-Prime 2.0 Professional
Conversion. Make sure that under "When loading..." it says "Maintain
the E-Prime 2.0 file format", and make sure that "Always perform this
conversion action without prompting" is checked. (Hmm, I suppose I
could have just said that without the long-winded explanation, but
where is the fun in that?) You still have to remember to load an
EP2-base file template whenever you start a new program from scratch
(File > New), but this setting will stop the nags for existing EP2-base files.
As long as I have gone this far, I might as well lay out the full set
of settings changes I make every time I set up EP2 Pro. Perhaps
others would like to contribute their own favorite setup
options. For each tab of the Tools > Options dialog,
- General:
- E-Prime 2.0 Professional Conversion:
- Maintain the E-Prime 2.0 format
- Always perform this conversion action without prompting -- checked
- Structure
- Allow Structure Branches to Collapse -- checked
- Toolbox
- Show the toolbox item large icons -- unchecked
- Script
- Use ScriptSense... -- unchecked (already the default)
- AutoUpdate
- Routinely check for updates... -- unchecked (don't like
updates in the middle of studies)
My apologies for a long reply of limited interest,
-- David McFarlane, Professional (and long-winded) Faultfinder
[Footnote 1] PST uses "E-Prime 2 Professional" to refer to the Pro
edition of EP2, and just "E-Prime 2" to refer to the edition that is
*not* Pro. I find this confusing, as it provides no way to refer to
E-Prime 2 without referring specifically to one or the other
edition. As a native speaker of English, I find it more natural to
use "E-Prime 2" when I do not wish to specify an edition. I can then
use "E-Prime 2 Professional" or "EP2 Pro" to refer to the Pro
edition, but then how do I refer to the edition that is not
"Professional"? I tried using "EP2 non-Pro", but that is hard to
keep straight and it is too easy to slip and leave off the "non",
which then drastically changes the meaning of my sentences. PST
staff themselves sometimes resort to saying EP2 "standard". However,
that implies that the non-Pro edition is in fact the "standard" that
researchers should use unless they specifically need Pro, whereas I
feel that the true "standard" edition is Pro and the non-Pro edition
is a limited-purpose edition. I might call it EP2 Basic, but that
could get confusing as "Basic" is also the name of the underlying
programming language. Perhaps "EP2 Limited", or "EP2 Elements"
(following Adobe). So far I like "EP2-base", to indicate that it is
the starting edition that forms the basis or foundation for the full
"Professional" edition. I also toyed with "EP2 Junior" just because
I like the diminutive tone of that, but then thought that went a bit
too far. So for now, I will try "EP2-base".
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "E-Prime" group.
To post to this group, send email to e-prime at googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to e-prime+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/e-prime?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
More information about the Eprime
mailing list