EstimateS Support
EstimateS support starts, and usually ends, with the Estimate User's Guide, which was deliberately written in much more detail than most manuals, to provide you with full access to the information you need.
"How To" Questions: The User's Guide is the first place to go to find out if EstS can do something you want done. Use the Table of Contents or your browser's search tool to see if you can find the answer you need.
Support by Email
Emailed questions that can be answered by consulting the Estimate User's Guide will receive the lowest priority for email support, or may not be answered at all. Please understand that EstS has thousands of users, and exactly one busy professor to keep up with support email.
Technical problems with EstimateS or problems with the EstimateS Website .You may request email help with problems you can't solve with the help of the Estimate User's Guide. Please contact EstimateS's author, Robert Colwell at colwell@uconn.edu.
When preparing an email with a request for for support, please be sure to include the following:
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The word "EstimateS" in the message Subject.
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Version of EstimateS. From the File menu in EstimateS, select "About EstimateS." Record the Version and Date of the copy of EstimateS that you are using.
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Your computer's Operating System.
- A detailed description of what you are trying to do, or the problem you have doing it.
Please do not telephone the Author with support questions.
Bug Reporting
If EstimateS does something you did not expect, first try consulting the Estimate User's Guide, including the section on "Troubleshooting," to see if the behavior is normal. If something happens that is clearly not intended, you may have found a bug. If a 4th Dimension error window appears, you have definitely found a bug.
If you believe you have discovered a bug, please email EstimateS's author, Robert Colwell at colwell@uconn.edu.
When preparing an email with a bug report, please be sure to include the following:
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The word "EstimateS" in the message Subject.
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Version of EstimateS. From the File menu in EstimateS, select "About EstimateS." Record the Version and Date of the copy of EstimateS that you are using.
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Your computer's Operating System.
- A description of the problem. To be most useful the description of the problem should include a full account of the steps that led up to it. If at all possible, try making it happen again until you are sure what steps reliably produce the problem. If the problem cannot be reproduced, it cannot be fixed.
- Any data that were involved. If the problem seems to concern a particular data set, please send the input file as an attachment.
Known Bugs
- Estimates 8.0 bug (NOT a problem in earlier versions, including 7.5): Program hangs up (Mac OS) or crashes (Windows) when running Diversity with the option checked to "Compute Fisher's alpha, Shannon & Simpson indexes." This is a bug, which will be fixed in the next version. Meanwhile, download and install EstimateS Version 7.5, which does not have this problem.
- Estimates 7.5 bug (and perhaps earlier versions): "Out of Memory Message" on attempting to run Diversity estimation. This is not actually a memory problem at all. You are neglecting to indicate the correct number of columns and rows of Headings when you load the Input File. Check carefully and try again. (4D attempts to treat alphabetic characters as numbers, and gets confused....).
- Estimates 7.5 bug: The upper abundance limit for rare/infrequent species is not saved for computing ICE and ACE. In some circumstances, the value entered in Coverage Estimators box of the Estimators tab of the Diversity Settings screen (Diversity menu) is not saved. When this happens, the resulting values of ICE and ACE are computed for an unintended abundance limit (e.g. 1). Workarounds: (1) do not open the Diversity Settings screen after loading an input fie (the default of 10 is used, or another value if set as a parameter in the input file), or (2) set the upper abundance limit in the Shared Species Settings screen, then do not open the Diversity Settings screen before selecting Compute Diversity.
- Windows only: "Create a New Segment" Message or "Cannot save changes to file" message. If you get a message saying you cannot save changes to file, or an offer to "Create a new segment," your system is probably set up to write-protect files. You need to have Write privileges to use EstimateS. See your IT administrator.
Notes for Mac OS X
Although EstimateS 7.5 runs native under Mac OS X, there is one peculiarities to be aware of.
- Quitting EstimateS. Due to limitations in the 4th Dimension development environment used to build EstimateS, you must Quit EstimateS in the traditional, pre-OS X way, by selecting Quit EstimateS from the File menu, not from the OS X Applications menu. You can also quit, as with any Mac program, by pressing Command-Q on the keyboard.
Notes for Mac OS 9
To run EstimateS under Mac OS 9, you need to have Apple's CarbonLib 1.4 or later installed. You can download CarbonLib for free from Apple.
Notes for Windows
- Operating Systems: EstimateS runs native under Microsoft Windows XP, but is also certified for earlier Windows operating systems back to Windows 2000. It may also work under even earlier operating systems, but none were available for testing.
- Disk Full or File Full Messages: If you get an error message reading "Disk Full" or "Data File Full" or "Create new Segment?", it means that you do not have full Write privileges for the EstimateS Data File, EstimateSWin750.4DD. If you cannot change the settings to establish Write privileges for this file yourself, ask your IT administrator for help.
Your Suggestions for EstimateS
EstimateS's current tools and features evolved over a period of ten years, partly under the guidance of EstimateS users. Suggestions for improvement are welcomed. Please email EstimateS's author, Robert Colwell at colwell@uconn.edu. Please include the word "EstimateS" in the Subject line of your message.
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