Slide duration defined by variable, not attribute

[Tobias]

The problem was that I was still referring to an attribute...

so thanks for the hint!

best,
Tobias

On 8 Jul., 16:03, David McFarlane <mcfar... at msu.edu> wrote:
> Tobias,
>
> Hmm, well, from this distance I cannot tell what you are doing wrong,
> I just put the code anywhere before the object and it works perfectly
> for me (I tried just now and made absolutely sure).  (I did have to
> make sure to type in the correct number -- I first mistakenly typed
> "5" for 5 s, forgetting that I had to enter 5000 for 5000 ms, once I
> did that it was OK.  So do make sure you have entered the correct
> values.)  More importantly, on the object itself I just left the
> Duration at its default of 1000.  The exact value does not matter at
> all, but you must, *must* use a literal value in the Duration
> property of the object itself, do *not* use an attribute
> reference!!  If you use an attribute reference for the duration then
> that attribute value will replace the value from your earlier code --
> you could see this for yourself simply by looking at the source code
> that E-Studio generates, you don't need my help to figure this out.
>
> Of course, putting a literal value in for the Duration of the object
> will deceive users into thinking that the Duration for that object is
> that literal value, instead of the value that comes from your inline
> code, which is the point of my first objection below.  And if you can
> get this to work by setting an attribute reference in code, then why
> bother getting it to work withouth the attribute reference, except as
> a mere academic exercise (of which I would approve)?
>
> -- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>
> At 7/8/2011 07:23 AM Friday, you wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >Thanks for your sage advice. I think I just found it annoying to
> >always use "c.setattrib" etc., never really knowing by heart the exact
> >syntax. Also, I sometimes had error mesagges because the variable
> >types didn't match etc. I'll think about it, but for the moment: THis
> >snip of code you were writing, at what point in the procedure should I
> >include it? I was actually aware that "StimText.Duration = durationA"
> >should work, but if I put at a point before the object, the value
> >entered in the object will overwrite it. And after the object, it's
> >already too late :-p
>
> >Best,
> >Tobias
>
> >On 7 Jul., 19:56, David McFarlane <mcfar... at msu.edu> wrote:
> > > Tobias,
>
> > > First, I disagree with your premise about attribute references being
> > > "more complicated and not really straight forward" than
> > > variables.  It is just as simple and straightforward to use attribute
> > > references in code as it is to use variables in code, and in most
> > > cases attribute references offer distince advantages.  I started out
> > > using variables just as you describe (and so will get around to
> > > actually answering your question :)), but once I understood attribute
> > > references better I switched to using those whenever I can, for the
> > > following reasons:
>
> > > - Using a variable for, say, Duration, leaves *no* clue in the
> > > program design that that value will vary -- to the contrary, the
> > > object's Duration will show as a constant, so programmers just have
> > > to "know" that this value will vary in some code somewhere.  By
> > > contrast, an attribute reference in the object serves notice that
> > > that value varies, and thus is much "friendlier" to programmers.
>
> > > - Using a variable does *not* log the varying value, so after the
> > > experiment you have no record of what really happened.  Using an
> > > attribute reference fixes this at no extra cost.  Yes, you could
> > > throw in a c.SetAttrib "DurationA", durationA just to log the, but
> > > once you go to that length you might as well just use the attribute
> > > in your object, no?
>
> > > So except for extreme cases, if I need to vary a property value from
> > > code instead of a List, I always do something like
>
> > > c.SetAttrib "DurationA", durationA
>
> > > and then use [DurationA] for the Duration property of my stimulus object.
>
> > > But let's suppose that you really have a valid purpose for this (or
> > > wish to simply ignore my sage advice).  Here's how you do
> > > that.  Suppose you want to set the Duration property of a stimlus
> > > object called StimText to a variable called durationA.  In code,
> > you simply do
>
> > > StimText.Duration = durationA
>
> > > That's it!  Absurdly simple.  You can do this for a whole host of
> > > object properties, just look at the E-Basic Help page for any desired
> > > object.  For that matter, work through Chapter 4 of the User's Guide
> > > that came with E-Prime, and take a course in Introduction to Computer
> > > Programming.
>
> > > Regards,
> > > -- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>
> > > At 7/7/2011 01:23 PM Thursday, you wrote:
> > > >Hi,
>
> > > >I would like to define the duration of an object (slide in this case)
> > > >in E-Prime with a variable. As far as I know, instead of specifying
> > > >the duration directly by a number, you can also use square brackets
> > > >and enter, let's say [durationA]. This refers to the attribute in the
> > > >current list named "durationA". However, using attributes is much more
> > > >complicated and not really straight forward. Is there a way of using
> > > >variables instead?
>
> > > >Thanks a lot in advance!
> > > >Tobias

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