Open Ended Input in E-Prime

[Cynthia J DeVore]

Georg,

I have discovered similar "features" and created a workaround. I took this
wholesale from a module I'm working on that supports multiple text entry
fields on a slide (I don't use the built in Echo) and so you may need to do
some fiddling with it. (In my implementation, in order to "echo" I allow
only one character for keyboard response and write it to the .text
associated with a text object.) The following code goes on the User Tab of
the Script. Then in an Inline, I have something like:

xxx = CleanedTextString(keyboardmask.RESP)

I'm on a hard deadline and regret that I cannot provide a better
explanation of the process.

Good luck.
Cynthia


Const ebLeftBrace = "{"
Const ebRightBrace = "}"
Const ebEnter = "{ENTER}"
Const ebBackSpace = "{BACKSPACE}"

Function ReplaceString(strSource As String, strFind As String, strReplace
As String) As String

         Dim strFinal As String
         Dim nPosNew As Integer
         Dim nPos As Integer
         nPos = 1

         Do
                 nPosNew = InStr(nPos, strSource, strFind)
                 If nPosNew > 0 Then
                         'Append up to where we found
                         strFinal = strFinal & Mid(strSource, nPos, nPosNew
- nPos)

                         'Append the replaced string
                         strFinal = strFinal & strReplace

                         'Move past the item to find
                         nPos = nPosNew + Len(strFind)
                 Else
                         'Append the remainder of the string
                         strFinal = strFinal & Right(strSource,
Len(strSource) - (nPos - 1))

                         'No more need to search
                         nPos = 0
                 End If

         Loop Until nPos < 1

         ReplaceString = strFinal

End Function

Function CleanedTextString (strToChange As String) As String

         Dim strOld As String
         Dim strNew as String
         Dim strFind as String
         Dim strReplace as String
         Dim nPos as integer
         Dim nPosLeft as Integer
         Dim nPosRight as Integer

         Dim OldValue (1 to 2) as String
         Dim NewValue (1 to 2) as String

         OldValue (1) = "{SPACE}"
         OldValue (2) = "{BACKSLASH}"

         NewValue (1) = " "
         NewValue (2) = chr(92)

         strOld = strToChange

         ' Replace the special fields first
         For i = 1 to 2
                 strFind = OldValue(i)
                 strReplace = NewValue(i)
                 strNew = ReplaceString(strOld, strFind, strReplace)
                 strOld = strNew
         Next i

         ' Replace all other fields
         nPos = 1
         Do Until inStr(1,strOld,ebLeftBrace) = 0
                 nPosLeft = inStr(npos,strOld,ebLeftBrace)
                 nPosRight = inStr(nPosLeft,strOld,ebRightBrace)
                 If nPosRight - nPosLeft = 2 Then
                         strNew =
mid(strOld,(nPosLeft+1),1)&right(strOld,(len(strOld)-nPosRight))
                         If nPosLeft > 1 Then
                                 strNew = left(strOld,(nPosLeft-1)) & strNew
                         End If
                 Else
                         strNew = right(strOld,(Len(strOld)-nPosRight))
                         If nPosLeft > 1 Then
                                 strNew = left(strOld,(nPosLeft-1)) & strNew
                         End If
                 End If
                 strOld = strNew
         Loop

         CleanedTextString = strOld

End Function

At 04:48 PM 5/30/03 +0200, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I'm a long time MEL2 user who is currently making the transision to
>E-Prime.
>
>I'm working on my first study and I want create a computer
>questionnaire with open ended questions. To create an open ended
>question I load a slide with the instructions and black frame for the
>open ended input box.
>Then I add a TextDisplay which collects a keyboard response, that is
>in input masks I added the keybord as input device. Then I clicked on
>advanced in the response options and set a max count of 20, Flush
>Input Buffer to 'yes' and the Termination Response to {ENTER}. On the
>collection tab I set the reponse mode to 'alphanumeric' and process
>backspace to 'yes'. I also added a display on the screen in the echo
>tab, so that the subjects can see what they are typing.
>
>Now everything runs smoothly as long as you don't need to correct your
>input. When you type on the backspace the text on the screen
>disappears correctly. Unfortunately the maximum number of allowed
>characters is decreased instead of increase when I press the backspace
>key.
>So for example if I enter ten characters and then erase these ten
>characters again with backspace the screen will disappear because the
>20 characters maximum has been reached.
>
>This looks very much like a bug in E-Studio. Obviously control
>characters are registered as regular alphanumeric characters and are
>added to the text string. They should either be ignored or just
>perform the desired control, e.g. deleting a character from the screen
>and from the text variable.
>
>Is there any way to get E-Prime to perform the backspace operation
>correctly?
>
>I can probably come up with some E-Basic code to do open ended input
>with correct backspace processing, but it would be a lot easier if
>there was an E-Object that can also do this correctly.
>
>Does any of you have had similar problems or probably a good solution
>for that problem?
>
>Best regards,
>  Georg
>
>
>==========================================================================
>
>Georg Odenthal (Dipl.-Psych.)             University of Konstanz
>+49 (0)7531 88-2872                       Department of Psychology
>odenthal at soz.psychologie.uni-konstanz.de  Social Psychology and Motivation
>http://www.socpsych.uni-konstanz.de       78457 Konstanz, Germany
>
>==========================================================================

Cynthia J. DeVore
Graduate Student
University of Minnesota - Industrial/Organizational Psychology
devo0023 at tc.umn.edu
612-624-3601
Office hours for E-Prime Consultant:
http://online.psych.umn.edu/IS/Elliott160/Calendar/200305.htm
E-Prime @ U of MN http://online.psych.umn.edu/IS/Eprime/index.htm