FLXLab

Bugs

This page describes known bugs with FLXLab, along with fixes for those bugs, if available. If you encounter problems with a particular version that are not mentioned here, please send me an e-mail at todd dot haskell at wwu dot edu so I can add it to this list (and start work on fixing it, if appropriate).

Version 2.5alpha

The voice key commands do not work in this version. This problem will be addressed in the next release.

Version 2.4

Some users have encountered problems with this version on Windows 7. These problems have been fixed in version 2.5.
Under certain conditions, playing of sound files will generate an error message under Windows. This problem has been fixed in version 2.5.

Version 2.3

The program does not reset itself properly after running a script, so that if you run a script, and then run another script (same script or a different one) that modifies a default setting, like the default font face, you will get an error. This problem can be avoided by fully quiting and re-starting the program between runs of a script. The development team is working on releasing a fix for this bug.
In the Mac version, the cursor always remains on the screen. This is a known bug with the Allegro library which FLXLab uses to work with the mouse. The development team is working on releasing a fix for this.
The bug with pink borders around text in the Linux version of 2.2 is still there, but the configuration scripts have been modified so that in most cases you won't notice it.

Version 2.2

In the Linux version only, it appears that the GlyphKeeper library ignores any instructions to set the text background color to anything other than transparent. This causes a pink border around text when it is displayed on the screen. This can be avoided by ensuring that the display event presenting the text has a non-transparent background. For example:
TextObject my_text "Here is some text."
DisplayObject show_text
Color white
AddObject my_text

Version 2.1

Text is always displayed with a solid background rectangle, contrary to what is stated in the user guide. This bug has been fixed in version 2.2 so that text is always displayed with a transparent background.
The mouse cursor can appear at undesired times, and can sometimes leave "mouse droppings" on the screen. This bug has been fixed in version 2.2, which also provides a way to control when the cursor will and will not be visible.

Version 2.0

The original Windows release of Version 2.0 did not work properly with Vista. There is now a special installer package on SourceForge which provides a Vista version of the program.
In the non-Vista Windows version of FLXLab, the lexical_decision_I and lexical_decision_II demos do not work properly. To fix this problem, go into the folder containing the demo (e.g., lexical_decision_I_demo), and create a folder called data_files. Alternatively, you can download the separate "demos.zip" file, which does contain the two missing folders.
On some Windows computers, FLXLab will display an error message when a script attempts to read a stimulus list or other text file. In most cases, this problem can be fixed as follows (see below for some Vista-specific issues):
1. Go to the folder where FLXLab is installed, i.e., the folder called "FLXLab 2.0". Within that folder is another folder called "config". Inside that folder is a file called "text_config.flx".
2. Open "text_config.flx" using NotePad. You will have to right-click the file, then choose "Open with" from the resulting menu, in order to be able to open it with NotePad, instead of opening it with FLXLab itself.
3. Inside that file is the following line:
  AddFontDirectory \windows\Fonts
  There are two possible changes you can make to this line that users have found to found to solve the problem. Try the first suggested change, and if that does not work, you can try the second one.
  1) Add 'C:\' at the beginning of the path, i.e.,
  AddFontDirectory C:\windows\Fonts
  2) Place the character '#' at the beginning of this line, i.e.,
  #AddFontDirectory \windows\Fonts
4. Save the file.
Note that the second option will prevent FLXLab from using any fonts other than those distributed with the FLXLab program. The development team is working on a better solution to this problem.
VISTA SPECIFIC ISSUES:
- FLXLab is normally installed in C:\Program Files\FLXSoft\FLXLab 2.0, rather than C:\Program Files\FLXLab 2.0.
- To actually edit the configuration files with NotePad, you have to run NotePad as an administrator. To do this, go to the Start menu, choose All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click on the icon for NotePad and choose "Run as administrator". You can then open the configuration files using the File menu. Note that you will have to change the file type option to display all files, since nNotePad will only display .txt files (and not .flx files) by default.
On some Windows computers, FLXLab may have difficulty displaying image files. The development team is working on resolving this bug.