[solved] quick start, no logging, no questions

yuval

Hi.
Is it possible to start an experiment with no questions, that is, without asking for subject number, without saving and therefore without asking me where to save / overwrite?
thanks
Yuval

sebastiaan

Hi Yuval,

Yes, there's a program called opensesamerun (included with OpenSesame) that allows you to run experiments from the command line. For a list of command line options, see opensesame --help.

See also this post: http://forum.cogsci.nl/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/230

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

Edwin

Hi Sebastiaan,

The following commands don't work on my win7 laptop's cmd.exe:

Directory is always *\Program Files (x86)\OpenSesame, where opensesame.exe and opensesamerun.exe are located.

opensesame --help

opensesame.exe --help

Both briefly open OpenSesame, but it closes down almost immediatly.

opensesamerun --help

opensesamerun.exe --help

Don't do anything (at least not visibly).

So far, I've figured out (by trial and error) that the following command starts the opensesamerun with experiment.opensesame as its experiment.

opensesamerun C:\Users\Username\Documents\experiment.opensesame

But I'm at a loss when it comes to adjusting the other variables (logfile, subjectnumber, full screen mode, eyelink functionality etc.) through a terminal.

Any help is appreciated, since I'm very interested in the command line options!

Cheers!
Edwin

sebastiaan

Right, of course, I forgot. Windows doesn't run it in a terminal, at least not in the same way that Linux/ Mac OS does. Below is what you should see.

Please let me know what type of command line options you'd like to see. Also, please note that some options (such as --theme and --ipython) tap into to experimental/ untested features.

Output from opensesamerun --help

Usage: opensesamerun [experiment] [options]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  Subject and log file options:
    -s SUBJECT, --subject=SUBJECT
                        Subject number
    -l LOGFILE, --logfile=LOGFILE
                        Logfile

  Display options:
    -f, --fullscreen    Run fullscreen
    -c, --custom_resolution
                        Do not use the display resolution specified in the
                        experiment file
    -w WIDTH, --width=WIDTH
                        Display width
    -e HEIGHT, --height=HEIGHT
                        Display height

  Miscellaneous options:
    -d, --debug         Print lots of debugging messages to the standard
                        output

  Miscellaneous options:
    --pylink            Load PyLink before PyGame (necessary for using the
                        Eyelink plug-ins in non-dummy mode)

Output from opensesame --help

Usage: opensesame [experiment] [options]

Options:
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

  Immediately run an experiment:
    -r, --run           Run fullscreen
    -w, --run-in-window
                        Run in window

  Miscellaneous options:
    -c _CONFIG, --config=_CONFIG
                        Set a configuration option, e.g, '--config
                        auto_update_check=False;scintilla_font_size=10'. For a
                        complete list of configuration options, please refer
                        to the source of config.py.
    -t _THEME, --theme=_THEME
                        Specify a GUI theme
    -d, --debug         Print lots of debugging messages to the standard
                        output
    -s, --stack         Print stack trace (only in debug mode)
    -p, --preload       Preload Python modules
    --pylink            Load PyLink before PyGame (necessary for using the
                        Eyelink plug-ins in non-dummy mode)
    --ipython           Enable the IPython interpreter
    --no-global-resources
                        Do not use global resources on *nix

Edwin

Thanks, that's really great! Might be a good idea to include this in the osdoc-pages, I think.

Personally, I think the command line options are fine as they are for opensesame.exe. I don't really see the point in using 'em, actually.

Those for opensesamerun.exe are a different story: it's a great solution for situations where you would like someone to run an experiment, but when you're not around (when, for example, you would like primary school children to do a daily task, but you don't have the time to visit the school every day and you certainly don't want to let the children use run the experiment from opensesame.exe, as they might adjust important variables, or even mess up the entire experiment).
A useful extra option might be to add a command for adding a custom variable, very similar to the subject number (e.g. for a certain condition). Something like this, perhaps?

--varname=VALUE

Can't think of anything else for the moment...

Cheers!
Edwin

P.S. Interesting fact: I'm using the opensesamerun.exe to launch a questionnaire-task by means of a batch file, so clients of a psychotherapist can simply double-click on the questionnaire.bat and fill out their file and session numbers (one of the questionnaires is an evaluation of a clients mood for the past week and his of her opinion of the current session; hence the need for a session number). So OpenSesame has found it's way into therapeutic practice now

sebastiaan

A useful extra option might be to add a command for adding a custom variable, very similar to the subject number (e.g. for a certain condition).

Right, that's actually not a bad idea. I marked it as a feature request: https://github.com/smathot/OpenSesame/issues/83