User`s guide

E-Prime User’s Guide
Chapter 1: Introduction
Page 5
accessible. Once E-Prime has been installed, the serial number can also be found in the About
E-Studio dialog box located on the Help menu. Users MUST provide the serial number for
technical support.
1.6.4 Sharing pre-developed programs
E-Prime license owners are free to distribute any files they create through use of the system.
Files created by users include Experiment Specification files (ES) , E-Basic Script files (EBS) ,
data files (EDAT, EMRG) , and analysis files (ANL) . However, the license agreement prohibits
distribution of any part of the E-Prime system, including the run-time application. Therefore, in
order to view or run any shared files, the recipient must have access to an E-Prime installation.
The E-Prime Evaluation Version may be used to view experiments and run them under restricted
conditions. To access an ES file, the recipient must have the full E-Prime installation, or a
custom installation including E-Studio. To run an EBS file, the recipient must have the Subject
Station installation, a custom installation including E-Run, or the Run-Time Only installation. To
open or merge data files, the user must have an installation including the data handling
applications (i.e., E-DataAid and E-Merge). For further information about sharing pre-developed
files, refer to the Reference Guide (Chapter 3, section 3.3.5).
1.6.5 Citing E-Prime
Technical details should be reported in the Methods sections of articles presenting experiments
conducted using E-Prime. The reader should consult the American Psychological Association's
Publication Manual (1994) for a general discussion of how to write a methods section. The E-
Prime User's Guide and Reference Guide may be referenced as follows:
Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2001). E-Prime User's Guide. Pittsburgh:
Psychology Software Tools, Inc.
Schneider, W., Eschman, A., & Zuccolotto, A. (2001). E-Prime Reference Guide. Pittsburgh:
Psychology Software Tools, Inc.
1.7 E-Prime for MEL Professional Users
MEL Professional users often ask how E-Prime differs from MEL Professional. Having invested a
large amount of effort to learn MEL Professional and the MEL language, users would like to be
assured that their investment will not be wasted. The following section will outline the differences
and similarities between MEL Professional and E-Prime. While MEL Professional users will find
that there are a number of similarities between the two systems, there are sufficient differences to
warrant a few recommendations. It is strongly recommended that even the most experienced
MEL Professional user work through the Getting Started Guide as an introduction to E-Prime.
Also, when recreating experiments originally written using MEL Professional in E-Prime, it is
recommended that the user not attempt to use any code from MEL Professional programs. MEL
language commands do not automatically convert to E-Basic script, and it is best that the user
attempt to remap the structure of the experiment in E-Prime from scratch. The amount of time
that was necessary to generate an experiment using MEL Professional has been greatly reduced
with E-Prime (e.g., hours instead of days).
At the most basic level, MEL Professional and E-Prime differ in the operating systems for which
they were designed. MEL Professional, released in 1990, was designed for achieving accurate
timing within the MS-DOS operating system. E-Prime was developed for use with Windows,
specifically responding to advancing technology, and the need for a more advanced tool
compatible with modern operating systems. MEL Professional users viewing E-Prime will notice