home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Der Mediaplex Sampler - Die 6 von Plex
/
6_v_plex.zip
/
6_v_plex
/
DISK5
/
DOS_51
/
BEERLINK.ZIP
/
BEERLINK.DOC
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-07
|
11KB
|
228 lines
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BeerLink... Alpha Version 0.1 │
│ ...A HomeBrewer's Development Tool │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
BeerLink is designed to handle all of the information you need to make your
Homebrewing better! Almost any successful Homebrewer will tell you that
recording your recipe ingredients and your boiling time, etc., is an
important step in brewing better beer. Collecting recipes from Fido, a BBS,
Text Files (like the Cat's Meow!), and so on, has also become very popular.
There is plenty of important information to be found regarding Hops, Malts,
Grains, Yeasts, and other stuff! Before you know it, you are *swamped* with
data, and it's hard to make sense of it... BeerLink to the Rescue!! :)
SECTION 2: BEERLINK SETUP
The files that make up BeerLink can be divided into three types:
Program Files, Data Files and Associated Text Files. You will find each
type in a ARJ file within BEERLINK.ARJ.
To Install:
(1) Create a Program directory for BeerLink, along with subdirectories for
the Data and Associated Text Files.
Example directory structure: BEERLINK
|_____DATA
|_____TEXT
(2) UnARJ the following files into the following directories:
BEERPROG.ARJ into the BEERLINK directory
BEERDATA.ARJ into the DATA directory
BEERTEXT.ARJ into the TEXT directory
(3) Edit the BEERLINK.CFG file (in the BEERLINK directory) to match your
setup, as follows:
Line 1: Path and Filename of the external viewer/editor you want to
use to view/edit the Associated Text Files. (See below)
Line 2: Path to the Associated Text Files (MUST! have a trailing
backslash!!)
Line 3: Path to the Data Files (MUST! have a trailing backslash!!)
Notes: (Viewer/Editor) - BeerLink has been tested with Van Buerg's
LIST.COM, the popular BROWSE.COM, and PCMag's TED.COM. I am working
on memory usage so that larger editors (like DOS 5.0's EDIT.COM)
can be used.
(4) Run It!
SECTION 3: BEERLINK USAGE
Here's the FUN part! :) Some of you may want to dive right in and play with
the program. That's fine! I suggest you read the part of this section called
KEY ASSIGNMENTS, and then have fun. To get the MOST out of BeerLink, you
should read the following description of how it is designed...
For each of us, the Homebrewing experience is centered around our sessions
at the stove, and at the tasting table! :) BeerLink is designed to link all
of your brewing information in a hierarchical structure (like a database!),
with the Brewing Log (information about a single batch of beer) as the
starting point. Individual recipes are linked to logs, and ingredients and
styles are linked to recipes. A diagram follows:
Brewing Logs (with comments...)
|______Recipes (with comments...)
|_______Ingredients (Malts, Grains, Yeast, Hops, Specials)
|_______Styles (Porters, Stouts, Ales... create your own!)
Each screen has an Associated Text File. Pressing Alt-E from any screen
loads your viewer with the appropriate text file. You can use these files
to store important information about each topic. Read the KEY ASSIGNMENTS
part of this section for more info on Alt Keys.
KEY ASSIGNMENTS
The following keys are used in BeerLink:
From Any Screen:
Alt-A Add a Record
Alt-D Delete current Record
Alt-E External Viewer (loads Associated Text File)
Alt-I Info on linked fields (see FIELD COLORS for more info)
From the Recipe Screen only:
Alt-C Recipe Comments
Alt-K Calculate HBU/IBU, Alcohol and Gravity
From the Recipe and Style Screens only:
Alt-G Jump to Grains Section
Alt-H Jump to Hops Section
Alt-M Jump to Malts Section
Alt-S Jump to Specials Section
Naviagtion Keys:
Esc Back up a screen
Tab Move to next field
Shift-Tab Move to previous field
Home Move to first field
End Move to last field
PgDown Move to next record
PgUp Move to previous record
DownArrow Next record of scrollable field
UpArrow Previous record of scrollable field
FIELD COLORS
Each field is colored for easy identification as follows:
Yellow = Linked Field (Alt-I moves to next level of info)
Blue = Scrollable Field (Up/Down Arrow changes value)
Green = Calcualted Field (Only updated through a calculation)
Red = User Input Field (User must enter data)
SECTION 4: A QUICK TUTORIAL
Let's run through a quick example to see how BeerLink can work for you:
Load BeerLink and choose the first menu option "Start With BeerLink LogBook".
You are now in the Log Screen, looking at the first record. BeerLink comes
with some example records to get you started. First, let's take a look at
how information is linked together in BeerLink. Move around the Log Screen
using the Tab and Shift-Tab keys. This takes you from field to field, and
allows you to edit each one. Move to the "Total Time of Boil Field". Notice
that this field is colored BLUE. That means you can change its value with the
arrow keys. Press the UpArrow. You'll see the minutes scroll up in
increments of 10. Pressing the DownArrow will scroll the value down. This
feature is available on all BLUE fields. Using the Up and Down Arrows on a
linked (YELLOW) field will also change its value (to the next record in that
fields database). Now press the Home key to move to the first field of
the Log Screen (the "Recipe Name" field). The name here is the recipe
that was brewed during this session. This field is linked to the Recipe
Screen. Press Alt-I, and you will see the Recipe Screen load, with
the linked recipe name as the current record. You can Tab and Shift-Tab
through this screen as well. Press Alt-Y to jump to the Yeasts Section. You
can scroll through the Yeasts in the database by using the Up and Down Arrows,
or you can press Alt-I to load the Yeasts Screen. Now you can see how info
is linked... You just moved from the Log Screen to a screen which provides
you with detailed information about the Yeast used in this session's recipe!
Anytime you change information about a recipe, you should press Alt-K to
recalculate the IBU/HBU, Alcohol and Bittering information. Try this now.
(If you are still in the Yeasts Screen, press Esc, to return to Recipes)
You'll see exactly how BeerLink is calculating the values. All of this
information is extracted from the database records for each ingredient, so
you can be sure that this is up to date information! :)
Now let's try the external viewer/editor! Press Alt-E, and (assuming you
have your CFG file pointing to a valid viewer) you will see the RECIPE.TXT
file. I suggest that you begin to store all of that information that you
are gathering into each of these files. If you find a file with good info
about Hops, put it in the HOPS.TXT file! Then you can easily reference that
info the next time you are using BeerLink. Another idea would be to put new
recipes that you find (in notes on Fido or elsewhere!) into the RECIPE.TXT
file, and then you can add them to BeerLink when you have time! The
HOMEBREW Digest (available on Internet and on your favorite Brewing BBS!)
is an excellent place to find good information about all kinds of things.
Tom Kaltenbach's utility called THREAD will help you extract info about
a given topic from these digests, and save them to seperate files. These
files can be the basis of your Associated Text Files!! OK, nuff said!
Leave your viewer/editor and you will be returned to the Recipe Screen.
Finally, press the Home key to move to the first field (the "Beer Type"
field). Pressing Alt-I now will load the Styles Screen, where there is
information regarding the Style of this recipe. This screen is very similar
to the Recipe Screen, except it is less exacting, so that you can *generally*
define the ingredients of the style without regard to exact proportions. This
info can be very useful when adventuring into the Creation of recipes of a
given style. Press Esc again to return to the Recipe Screen, and one more time
to return to the Log Screen. One last look around... :), and press Esc again
to return to the Main Menu.
You'll notice that you can start from any point in the data structure from
the Main Menu. You can go directly to the Recipe Screen to input a new recipe
(or edit an old one!). You can even go directly to the Ingredients Screens
and do the same. Just remember that you'll come back to the Main Menu from
wherever you started, so if you started with the Recipe Screen, you will go
back to the Main Menu from there, and *not* to the Log Screen.
That's about it for the tour. There is *MUCH* more to BeerLink than this, so
take some time experimenting with it! Ultimately, it can be used as a tool
to help you develop new recipes, and to record your sessions brewing them, so
that you will earn from your experiences. The Associated Text Files can be
a great asset, as you begin to gather important details about ingredients,
styles, and brewing methods.
SECTION 5: TO ALPHA TESTERS
THANK YOU! for taking whatever time you do to test and improve this program!
I am *not* a professional programmer, but I want to continue to develop this
application into something that is useful. I have a "day job" (as they say!),
and will be updating the program within *reasonable* periods (every month or
so until we get any major changes in). At this point, I *have not* gotten
the OK to use the ZYMURGY echo for development, so please make all
correspondence via NetMail. My FIDONET address is 1:106/7851.
I would appreciate hearing of any bugs that you find, as well as any ideas
for improvement. I won't guarantee that they will all be implemented, but
I plan on maintaining "The List" so that I can prioritize the changes.
I would also be VERY appreciative of any work that can be done to load
Recipe, Ingredients, and Style records into the database. It would make alot
of sense to distribute BeerLink with plenty of good info, so that folks can
use it right away. What better way to share recipes?! :) This will, of
course, require that I write a Data File Merge function into BeerLink! (See
the COMING FEATURES? section! :):)
P.S. - Feel Free to write over the bogus test records that I've included!
I was too lazy to put more than that in the databases!! :):)
SECTION 6: COMING FEATURES?
- A Search or Filter function to allow the user to only view records
that meet a certain criteria.
- A Data File Merge function that will allow the user to merge data files
from other BeerLink users (and exclude dup records!)
- What Else??
SECTION 7: LEGAL STUFF
BeerLink is only guaranteed to take up space on your hard drive! You use
this application at your own risk... (although it ain't much of a risk!) :)
BeerLink is FreeWare! That means if you like it, good! If you think it is
really good, and wouldn't mind sending a few bucks somewhere, make a donation
to your favorite charity. They need it much more than any of us do...
Doug Cox - The Back Room BBS - Richmond, TX - 713-341-7851 - 1:106/7851