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Software Vault: The Gold Collection
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Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
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cdr13
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mmconv10.zip
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MMCONV10.DOC
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1993-06-13
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MMCONV version 1.00
MMCONV is designed to be used by those of us who frequent recipe
conferences on BBSes and use MealMaster. Often people enter intriguing
recipes that are not in MM format. This program avoids some of the
drudgery of typing such recipes in by hand or manually reformatting them.
MMCONV 1.00 is designed to convert free-form recipes or recipes
formatted for other recipe databases to MealMaster format with minimal
manual effort. The MM format is:
units measure ingredients
Col 1: 1-7 9-10 13-39
Col 2: 42-48 50-51 54-81
MMCONV knows the standard MealMaster measurement abbreviations and uses
them. I did not know small, large, and pinch had standard abbreviations,
but they do.
MMCONV 1.00 detects the start and end of recipes in three different
ways:
Start of recipe:
--MM
-Begin Recipe Export- (QUIKBOOK)
Recipe Via Compu-Chef
End of recipe:
---
-End Recipe Export-
Recipe Via Compu-Chef
The program itself provides a brief help screen if run without an input
file:
version 1.00 Meal-Master recipe formatter by Rodney Grantham
Usage: MMCONV infile [outfile]
infile - contains recipes not in Meal-Master format
outfile - where to write Meal-Master format recipes
by default: MMmmdd
(Recipes already in MM format are placed in output file)
Some manual pre-processing may be required:
QUIKBOOK & COMPU-CHEF headings & footers are handled.
Mark other recipes with --MM at start
and --- at end of the recipe.
Categories are picked up if headed Categories:, Keywords:
or Cat: (the last is for adding your own category info).
If none of above is found, Category: Main dish is put in.
Servings: 1 is always put in the recipe.
A line of more than 45 characters with no 3 space break
in it is assumed to be the first direction line.
If a recipe does not have a QUIKBOOK, COMPU-CHEF, or MealMaster header
and footer, it must be manually marked. Put --MM at the top and at least
3 dashes (---) at the bottom. Both of these must be aligned with the left
margin. DO NOT add a MealMaster format header to a non-MM recipe. This
recipes are copied as is. A QUIKBOOK or COMPU-CHEF header could be used
to mark a recipe, but the --MM and --- are fewer characters.
MMCONV will handle a missing footer. It will be stopped by the next
header. However, this may cause the inclusion of extra stuff such as
taglines and message header information in some cases. In Meal-Master
format recipes, a flag message about Unexpected End of Recipe is placed at
the end of the recipe to alert you to check for a problem.
The MMCONV program will split lines that are too long for the basic MM
format. If these lines are in column 2, there will be a '-' inserted in
column 1 if it would otherwise be blank. This is required to force MM to
treat the 2nd column as a separate column. Without this, MM thinks it has
a single line of input which is too long.
Occasionally recipes have commentary between the title and the
ingredients. You must manually move these into the direction section of
the recipe or delete them for MMCONV to process the recipe correctly.
MMCONV will recognize categories headed with all the following in any
combination of upper or lower case and format them for MM:
Category:
Categories:
Keywords:
Cat:
Servings will always be set as 1. Serving information in the recipe
will be skipped. My experience is that such is rarely present and
therefore no logic to process it was included.
A line of more than 45 characters with no space at least 3 blanks wide
(normally occurs between columns or numbers and measurements and
ingredients) are treated as the first direction line. All subsequent lines
are treated as directions.
If your first direction is short, e.g., Preheat oven 350, it will be
treated as an ingredient. You can either reformat the recipe to make the
line longer (add on the subsequent line, for example) or manually adjust
this.
If the recipes are read from QWK or BlueWave messages, the From: and
Date: info is placed at the end of the recipe:
From: NANCY GOLDEN Date: 09-21-92
If there are no message headers detected, the following is used instead:
Converted by MMCONV vers. 1.00
If there is a mixture of headed messages and recipes, the message
header information will affect more recipes than the one associated with
it. Basically, the credit information from it will carry on till the next
header is found.
My approach to using MMCONV is to mark the recipes and then format the
input file with MMCONV. I then examine the output recipes. Any recipes
that were not correctly processed, I tweak in the input file and then
reprocess the input file . This process repeats until the recipes look
right to me. Or until a few manual changes are all that is required.
Typically, only two passes have been required. You may take several until
you get a handle on what the program expects.
The following is a sample of what the program output looks like:
MMCONV rec.tst
AL'S CHOCOLATE TO THE MAX
DATE BALLS
FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
RASPBERRY SAUCE
RASPBERRY FOOL
RED LOBSTER GARLIC CHEESE ROLLS
M&M PIZZAS
CRUNCHY ALMOND STICKS
PINATA COOKIES
ST LOUIS' PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
ST LOUIS' RUM BALLS
MM0612.1:
Recipes saved: 11 (already MM: 2)
Lines read: 276
Lines written: 302
The recipe titles display as they are extracted. This is followed by
the output file name and the number of recipes. The parenthetical count is
the number of these recipes that were found to already be in MM format.
The lines read and written print out at the end.
Like with MMCRDTxx, the default output file name is MMmmdd.n
(current month and day followed by a file number). If you provide your own
output file name, the file numbering convention is used similarly to avoid
overwriting existing files. It is supposed to go up to 999 versions, so
there should be little problem with running out. I have had up to 30+
versions in testing my programs.
I find manually entering recipes a nuisance. I also found trying to
squeeze odd recipes into MM format very time consuming. This program took
a while to write. But I expect to get some value from the time it saves
me.
I expect you will find that it saves you time as well. If it does, I
would like payment for the program. I cannot imagine that it does not save
you $5 worth of time if used a few times.
If you want to register and be notified of upgrades, send your name
and address and the BBS name and phone number where you got the program
with $5 to:
Rodney Grantham
770 Cranberry Tr.
Roswell, GA 30076
Please include the version number which displays when MMCONV is run
without any parameters. If there is a newer version, you will be notified.
If you have suggestions send them to the same address. I can also be
contacted via RIME or I-LINK CUISINE conferences.
If you use the program and don't register, drop me a postcard anyway.
Include any comments and your name and address and BBS name and phone
number where you got the program. I won't nag you about the money. I
realize that sometimes people cannot afford $5. I'd like to track the
spread and usage just out of curiousity. At least splurge enough to blow
a quarter. That's real close to freeware.