Problems with OS workspace

gerhono

I frequently create variants of experiments, which differ from the original experiment by several aspects but which are based on the same structure.

Hence, I copy the original experiment to a different folder, change the name, modifiy the sequence and modify the list of files. So far, it used to work but since the latest update of OS (probably), the original experiment is modified according to the changes made on the new variant !!

By chance, I always have a backup so I retrieved the original and restored it in its folder. But big surprise, the variant was also restored, although it is located in a different folder and has a different name !! So I lost my work ... It is very disturbing to realize that the file operations that you make under Windows are wiped out by an antagonistic hidden process. Please help !

Gérard

lvanderlinden

Dear @gerhono ,

I'm sorry to hear! @sebastiaan , could you have a look at this question?

Cheers,

Lotje

sebastiaan

Hi @gerhono ,

Do you mean that when you change one experiment file, a completely different experiment file is also changed? The only reason I can think of why that might happen is that they're both linked to the same file on the OSF. Then it could happen that you change file A, synchronize it to the OSF, open file B, also synchronize it to the OSF, and voilà: the changes to file A have also been applied to file B. Could that be it?

— Sebastiaan

gerhono

Hi Lotje and Sebastiaan,

Thank you for the quick reply. I don't use OSF (I guess you refer to the Open Science Framework). I have just moved an OpenSesame program from one Windows folder to a newly created folder, renamed it, modified it, adapted the related files in the file list and saved it under a new name. Of course, I expected I had created a new program, but I realized that the original file had been modified accordingly in its own folder ! I imagine that there is an underlying working directory with a working version of the program (I think it is the way it works in Open Sesame) in which the changes have been made and reflected to both the original and the modified program. It is hard to believe but the facts are there. I need to understand how that hidden working version of the program is managed, or another clear and safe method to create a variant of an existing program.

Thank you in advance,

Gérard

eduard

Hi Gerard,

That problem sounds really weird. On Ubuntu, I can't reproduce the problem; if I follow your instructions, the two files don't interact.

I don't know whether it would help a lot, but could you make a screencast (film your desktop while reproducing the error) to demonstrate the problem?

Eduard

gerhono

Hi Eduard,

I could not reproduce the problem (and I am delighted of it ...). My intuition is that, for some reason, there was a mismatch in the mirroring process of OS between the actual folders and the folders of the working area. Thank you for trying to reproduce the problem.

Greetings,

Gérard

lvanderlinden

Hi @gerhono , I'm happy to hear that your issue did not re-occur. Thanks for letting us know! :)