We're also having problems with E-Basic.  Admittedly, I am rather new
to E-Prime.  However, I was messing around with the InLine tool and
actually COPIED and PASTED the actual text from the Help file into the
InLine....and it did not work!!  What is up with that?  I get an error
message for the Sub Main() that says Encountered: Sub Expecting:
<statement>

Does anyone know why E-prime's own Help scripts do not work??

Amy V.

Amy,

Ah, I am glad that you discovered the online E-Basic Help, that is
the real documentation for E-Prime.  But make sure you read
everything around the example scripts first, often that contains
instructions about what example file to start with and other details
needed to make the sample script work.  The sample scripts in the
Help are often just fragments that need supporting code, as should be
understood by anyone generally familiar with computer programming.

And before you delve into the online E-Basic Help, please at least
work through *all* the tutorials in the Getting Started Guide that
came with E-Prime.  Even better if you work through all the tutorials
and sample experiments in the User's Guide.  The manuals are not
designed to explain the underlying principles, concepts, and
technical details of E-Prime usage, but at least the tutorials really
are pretty useful as far as they go.  And if you are serious about
inline script, please work through the Using E-Basic chapter of the
User's Guide.  And every lab that cares about critical timing *must*
have someone in their lab read and understand chapter three of the
User's Guide.

Hmm, I might take this opportunity to post for the first time my
notes on solving E-Prime puzzles.  I might later post this separately
under a proper subject heading to make it easier to find and refer to.

Regards,
-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

----------------------------
How to Solve E-Prime Puzzles
A General Algorithm

I have developed a general algorithm for solving E-Prime problems,
and I am putting this in the record here in case anyone (including
me) ever needs to search for this.

- Read the manuals that came with E-Prime (and pay attention to the
   tutorials):
     - Getting Started Guide
     - User's Guide
     - Reference Guide

- Look at the sample programs that came with E-Prime
     - BasicRT
     - PictureRT
     - SoundRT
     - SlideRT
     - NestingRT
     - NestingXRT
     - MovieRT  (EP2 only)
     - MultipleDisplayRt  (EP2 only)

- Search and study the online E-Basic Help
     - From E-Studio:  Help > E-Basic Help
     - From the Windows Start menu:  Path may vary, but it will be in
       the same place as the shortcut to E-Studio

- Read the online FAQ, whenever that gets written (I am still working
   on this one)

- Look at sample programs available on the Web
     - From PST:  http://www.pstnet.com/e-prime/support/samples.asp
       (requires registration and login)
     - From the E-Prime Google Group:
       http://groups.google.com/group/e-prime/files
     - From the System for Teaching Experimental Psychology (STEP):
       http://step.psy.cmu.edu/
     - From Paul Groot:  http://www.psy.vu.nl/download/menu/xml/TOC.xml
     - Attached to various messages at the PST Forum (requires
       registration & login to download attachments):
       http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Forum3-1.aspx

- Search the E-Prime Knowledge Base at
   http://www.pstnet.com/e-prime/support/kb.asp

- Search, browse, and study the web forums
     - E-Prime mailing list -- two portals to the same content:
         - Archives of EPRIME List:
           http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/eprime.html
         - E-Prime Google Group:
           http://groups.google.com/group/e-prime/
     - PST Forum:  http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Forum3-1.aspx

- After all the above fail, post a question at the web forums above.
   This may require registration.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

Following up after an off-list exchange with Amy...

Aha, that's it.  Most likely you innocently pasted that entire
example script into an inline script object.  That will not work at
all, as you cannot define a Sub in inline script (since that is
already executing from withing a Sub), you must define Subs and
Functions in the global User Area, as described in the Using E-Basic
chapter of the User's Guide.

Furthermore, that example is really meant for version 1.x.  Back in
version 1.x you could edit the raw source code as text directly in
E-Run; version 2 took that away from us.  Anyway, you would open a
blank E-Run window, then copy and paste the complete Random() example
into E-Run, and run that.  Just to make sure, I tried this myself
and... what do you know, the Random() example has an error in
it!  They forgot to define their variables, you need to add a "Dim x,
y, message" or the like in there, then it works.  Bad E-Prime example
writers!  They really need to proofread and test what they write
before foisting it off on innocent users!  I will report this error
to PST in case they want to fix it in future documentation.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

Sorry for further belaboring this, but for the record...

The Random() example does work if you paste it all into an inline
script object, add the line
Dim x, y, message
and delete the "Sub Main()" and "End Sub" lines.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder