Correct serrated or burr losangle after drawing a diamond polygon

[Camila Gomes Victorino]

Hi!

I have a binary decision making task where the subject needs to find out the diamond or losangle in one of the two sides. In the other one, there is a square and it needs to be identical to the diamond (just the angle position changes). I tried to draw the losangle and it worked, the problem is that the stimulus appears with serrated or burr sides. I tried to fix it putting the cnvs.penwidth and modifying it but it changes a lot the diamond and it needs to be identical to the square. I do not know how to fix it and get the serrated burrs out.

I wrote the code as this:

 'Declare variables

Dim r, centerX, centerY As Integer

'Create canvas

Set cnvs = Display.Canvas

cnvs.FillColor = CColor("White")

cnvs.Clear

'Create fixation point

cnvs.TextColor = CColor ("black")

cnvs.FontName = "Courier New"

cnvs.FontSize = "18"

cnvs.FontBold = CLogical("Yes")

cnvs.Text 313, 228, "+"

'Create gray squares

cnvs.Pencolor = CColor("Gray")

cnvs.Fillcolor = CColor("White")

cnvs.Rectangle 255, 205, 55, 62

cnvs.Rectangle Display.XRes -310, 205, 55, 62

'Show targets

cnvs.Pencolor = CColor("black")

cnvs.Fillcolor = CColor("black")

If c.getattrib("Target") = "Diamond" Then

'Write a left diamond

Dim P (4) As Point

P(0).x = 280

P(0).y = 218

P(1).x = 296

P(1).y = 239

P(2).x = 280

P(2).y = 256

P(3).x = 265

P(3).y = 239

cnvs.Polygon P, 4

cnvs.Rectangle 345, 222, 25, 30

Else

'Write a Rectangle

cnvs.Rectangle 270, 222, 25, 30

'Write a Diamond

Dim L (4) As Point

L(0).x = 357

L(0).y = 218

L(1).x = 373

L(1).y = 239

L(2).x = 357

L(2).y = 256

l(3).x = 342

L(3).y = 239

cnvs.Polygon L, 4

End If

Sleep (1000)

Thank you!

Best regards, 

[David McFarlane]

Hmm. I normally decline to look at extensive code samples or
attached programs, but you made it very easy and I was curious. So I
ran your code, and indeed got bad jagged edges for the diamonds. I
thought I could just attribute this to low Display resolution (640 x
480 default), but got the same bad results at all other resolutions
(max 1680 x 1050 on my machine), working with either EP1 or EP2. So
it seems that the E-Basic Canvas.Polygon command simply does not do a
good job of anti-aliasing (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_anti-aliasing for background information).

Instead, you should make image files for your diamond and other
shapes, then simply load those images to the Display as needed. This
has the advantage that you can use good software to prepare your
images and it will simplify your E-Basic code as you can simply
redraw the same image to different defined locations.

Come to think of this, using image files and Slides, you should be
able to do this with no E-Basic code at all (I should have thought of
this first, as this is the norma E-Prime way!). Just make a Slide
with SlideImage sub-objects to hold your square and diamond images,
then use attribute references from a List to assign the Position X &
Y properies for each of those sub-objects. Easy-peasy (as long as
you do not need too many diamond angles)!

-----
David McFarlane
E-Prime training
online: http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster )

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[Camila Gomes Victorino]

Hi David!

Thank you for your answer!

As I wrote my TrialProc as a queue of InLines (each one composing a canvas, showing different figures until feedback), using the Slide Image would create other canvas, different from the others and I don`t know if it is possible to mix two canvas in one, for example, some inline figures to the Images in SlideImage, all at once, so

I employed your idea, creating two images.bmp (one with left diamond and right square and other with right diamond and left square) and created a row in the TrialList, called TargetImage, linking each image file to a specific target in the trialList. After that, I came back to the Inline where the serrated diamond was written and tried to write the code to load and show this two images, based on the TrialList. The problem is I am having trouble to discover what to do.

In the part where the serrated diamond was written, I changed to:

'Show targets

If c.getattrib("Target") = "Diamond" Then

c.getattrib("TargetImage") = "DiamondLeft.bmp"

Else

'Write a Diamond

c.getattrib("TargetImage") = "DiamondRight.bmp"

End If

When I compile it says: "Can't assign to constant". I suspect I need to load the images first but I don`t know how to do it! Or I need to declare and set the bmp file (no clues!!). 

Other solution I figured out was to write a code to load and show the images directly. For example:

'Show targets

If c.getattrib("Target") = "Diamond" Then

"WRITE" = "DiamondLeft.bmp"

Else

'Write a Diamond

"WRITE" = "DiamondRight.bmp"

End if

The problem is I tried everything! I went to E-prime Help and copied and tried to use Canvas.LoadImage, ImageDisplay.Filename and ImageDisplay.Load but I`ve never succeed! 

Maybe it is a simple answer but I am a novice in programming. Any advice?

Thank you for your help!

Regards, Camila.

[David McFarlane]

Camila,

Just a few comments...

1) I really do not get why you do not want to do this with Slides,
and then get rid of all the inline code.

2) Lines like

c.getattrib("TargetImage") = "DiamondLeft.bmp"

are illegal. c.getattrib("TargetImage") returns a value, and it
makes no sense to assign a value to a returned value. If you have
trouble with that, then it means that you need to take a course in
Introduction to Programming.

3) Judging from other mistakes (e.g., '"WRITE" = "DiamondLeft.bmp"',
which makes no sense), I get the feeling that you need to get a fair
bit of background knowledge before anything said here will
help. Once again, this points toward taking a course in Introduction
to Programming.

4) But if you really want to do it on your own, then start with the
general comments at https://groups.google.com/d/topic/e-prime/VCXgOWjKtCg .

Best,
-- David McFarlane

><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_anti-aliasing>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_anti-aliasing

>for background information).
>
>Instead, you should make image files for your diamond and other
>shapes, then simply load those images to the Display as needed. This
>has the advantage that you can use good software to prepare your
>images and it will simplify your E-Basic code as you can simply
>redraw the same image to different defined locations.
>
>Come to think of this, using image files and Slides, you should be
>able to do this with no E-Basic code at all (I should have thought of
>this first, as this is the norma E-Prime way!). Just make a Slide
>with SlideImage sub-objects to hold your square and diamond images,
>then use attribute references from a List to assign the Position X &
>Y properies for each of those sub-objects. Easy-peasy (as long as
>you do not need too many diamond angles)!
>
>-----
>David McFarlane
>E-Prime training
>online:

><http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx>http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
>
>Twitter: @EPrimeMaster
>(<https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster>https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster )

>
>/----
>Stock reminder: 1) I do not work for PST. 2) PST's trained staff
>take any and all questions at

><https://support.pstnet.com>https://support.pstnet.com , and they

>strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of
>it. 3) In addition, PST offers several instructional videos on their
>YouTube channel

>(<http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET>http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET

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[Camila Gomes Victorino]

Dear David,

I would like to learn code and it is because of that I prefer to use Inline.

About the "write" think, I just put on that way to try to explain what I wanted to do (I know you don't do this in this way).

It has been just a month since I first began to program. It is fact I need courses and as you don’t know me, there is the possibility I will be unable to understand your responses about any other code you could be able to write about my doubts but, really? Do you really need to answer in this way? I am learning and off course I will write dumb mistakes but it does not mean someone could help me to understand, instead of saying “I get the feeling that you need to get a fair 

bit of background knowledge before anything said here will help.” I know I need background! Off course! If I didn’t why would I be here in this forum and using E-prime?  I will use Python straight ahead!

Finally, I've never thought to do this on my own and it is because of that I entered on this forum. 

Anyway, best for you too and thank you for the tips and links! 

[David McFarlane]

Camila,

If you are already comfortable with Python, and are really intent
about learning how to code, then I highly recommend PsychoPy,
psychopy.org . That might make a better platform than E-Prime for
your interests.

All the best,
-- David

><https://groups.google.com/d/topic/e-prime/VCXgOWjKtCg>https://groups.google.com/d/topic/e-prime/VCXgOWjKtCg

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