Monster Media 1994 #1

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Text File | 1994-03-19 | 29KB | 673 lines

MMCONV 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. Also handy when you want to format several recipes. Just type them up freehand and run them through MMCONV. It can also be used by QuikBook users since QuikBook will import MealMaster formatted recipes with no difficulty. MMCONV 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. Despite the temptation, I did not use CL (centiliter) to represent clove(s). I have seen recipes using it this way. MMCONV detects the start and end of recipes in four different ways: Start of recipe: --MM MMCONV -Begin Recipe Export- QUIKBOOK ********** Compu-Chef (next line must have ** in it) *** FROM SCRATCH RECIPE BEGINS ***** End of recipe: --- MMCONV -End Recipe Export- QUIKBOOK Recipe Via Compu-Chef ********** RECIPE ENDS ******** FROM SCRATCH Beginning with version 1.5, there is a fundamental change in the way MMCONV works. Those of you who used former versions can still use the standard parameter inputs to run the program. Type MMCONV ? for instructions in how to provide parameters for interactive usage. However, you can also run it with full screen input. Just type MMCONV with no parameters. The following will display: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MMCONV - MM recipe formatter 1.7 Recipe file: Output file: MM0908.1 Save extra lines: XTRA0908.1 Default category: Maindish Left footer: Right footer: Title display: Y Use generic head: N Zap categories: Y Registration Info: N Press Escape When Ready to Run Program --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recipe file is the input file normally specified after MMCONV. This can be a file of saved messages from a BBS. Any MM recipes will be extracted with no additional editing. Other formats or freeform recipes may require some manual editing. Save extra lines represents the relatively new -S option. If the file name is cleared (hitting HOME will do this or you can backspace it out), extra lines will not be written to a file. Default category is normally Maindish. You can modify this to whatever you prefer. For example on a ZIP file of chicken recipes, Chicken would be appropriate; if loading drink recipes, make it Drinks. If you want to be sure to spot recipes with no category, make it WHOOPS or some similar easily located word. Left and Right footers allow you to override the use of From and Date. This could be used to add commentary, such as zip name and author to a zip file of recipes. Or the conference or network to a collection of recipes off a BBS. You can run the original output file of recipes through a second time to add additional comment lines. If you run from the command line, the '-l' or '-L' and '-r' or '-R' parameters are similar ways to label a zip file or add a comment on the line after the author and date information if you run a prior MMCONV output file through again. Up to 38 characters will be used for either. Some flexibility is supported here. As long as the total characters for both is under 76, the program will combine the input into a credit line. If the length exceeds 76, the input will be adjusted to fit the 76 space limit and a message showing the resulting credit line will be displayed. To enter just type, for example: MMCONV mmrecipe -lFrom the ZIP file: MM00.zip -rOff SEMPERVIRENS BBS This will add the following CREDIT line at the bottom of recipes: From the ZIP file: MM00.zip Off SEMPERVIRENS BBS If you add quotes to the -r parameter, the extra spaces will be preserved so this input: MMCONVnn mmrecipe -lFrom the ZIP file: MM00.zip -r"Off SALATA BBS" produces this CREDIT line: From the ZIP file: MM00.zip Off SALATA BBS Title display is whether MMCONV should show the Titles as it saves the recipes. Sometimes error messages display and knowing the title the error occurred near can be helpful in locating the problem. Use generic header causes MMCONV to ignore SLMR or BlueWave format and just look for FROM: and DATE:, like the -X option for command line entry. Zap categories is an undocumented feature of 1.40. With a -z parameter from the command line, you can cause 1.40 to not delete the odd categories I selected to get rid of. The menu item gives you explicit on-screen control of this feature. Press Escape When Ready to Run Program is self-explanatory, I believe. The ESC key (often in the upper left corner of a keyboard) causes MMCONV to run. You can also carriage return off the Registration Info entry area. Note that the MENU is 'circular' so you can use an UP-arrow to get to the bottom of the MENU. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If a recipe does not have a QUIKBOOK, COMPU-CHEF, FromScratch 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. Recipes marked with genuine MealMaster headers (or close resemblances) are copied as is. With version 1.30 some of the categories are changed even in MM format recipes, but otherwise they are unedited and unmodified. Any of the other headers 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. Some items are automatically detected and skipped. Lines with the following characters (upper or lower case), for example: FROM, COOKING TIME:, PREP:, COOK:, DESCRIPTION :, extra CATEG or KEYWORD or TITLE entries after one has occurred; /* skip Compu-chef extra */ "FAT GRAMS" "CHOLESTEROL" "INGREDIENT" /* skip newone extra */ "OVEN TEMP :" "MINUTES :" "ORIGIN :" /* skip Peliggi extra */ "QTY MEASUREMENT INGREDIENT" The following 'measures' are recognized as likely to have extra spaces after them and an attempt is made to not have MMCONV mistake the extra space for an additional column: "WHOLE","STK","ENVELOPE","ENV", "ENV","BUNCH","BUNCHES","SQUARES","SQ","SQUARE","JUMBO","XLG","X-LG", "BOX", "BOXES", "INCH", "INCHES", "GLASS", "GLASSES", "CLOVES", "CLOVE", "CLOV", "CLV", "HEADS", "HEAD", "BAG", "BAGS", "STICK", "STICKS", "PIECES", "PIECE", "STALK", "STALKS","STKS","STA","EAR", "EARS","STRIPS","STRIP","RIBS","DASH" Since MMCONV detects start of directions by a blank line, sometimes you will have to remove additional blank lines occurring in the ingredient sections of non-MM recipes. (Real MM recipes are copied as is and should import with no trouble unless the author or his/her editor mangled them). 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: Category : Servings will default to 1. Serving information in the recipe will be picked up if recognized. The program looks for these characters (case-blind) to occur on first non-blank line after the title and expects a colon or space to follow them: SERV (serves or servings or serving detected) MAKE (make or makes) If these are found and the servings is 0, it will be set to one. If non-numeric serving is found, default of one will be used. A message showing the problem line will print out so you can fix the servings: TOMATO-CILANTRO BREAD Problem with servings: Makes one 9x5 loaf Starting with version 1.40, a change was made in the way ingredients versus directions are detected. Ingredients begin after the title category and serving processing is done and any intervening blank lines are skipped. If your recipe actually has no ingredients, put in "none" for ingredients followed by a blank line. The first blank line marks start of directions. Everything after that is taken as directions. All directions will be aligned with the left margin. Any combination of 3 or more --- or ___ with no other characters on the line terminates recipes processing. I like to know who originated the recipe. Typing this information on each recipe by hand is tedious. This program will scan through a file and add a credit line at the end of each recipe based on the From: and Date: information in the header. If the recipes are read from QWK or BlueWave messages, the From: and Date: info is placed at the end of the recipe: From: Linda Fields Date: 09-21-92 If there are no message headers detected, the following was used instead: Converted by MMCONV vers. n.nn Version 1.6 dropped this plug for MMCONV. It doesn't make much sense to store this in MM and it is a nuisance to edit it out. MMCONV can also be used to label recipes in a ZIP file or otherwise extracted MM format recipe file that does not have qwk headers. In this case, the command line -l and -r parameters are used to specify what you want stated at the bottom of the recipe. Every recipe in this case would have the same comment on it. From the menu, you would enter a left and right footer. 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. (If there are only minor irregularities, I fix the output file and proceed to import.) With the addition of the XTRAmmdd.n files, you can also peruse these files to determine if something was skipped or a recipe was chopped off. If the error is something I think the program should have handled, a new version is created or added to. If you find something you think should be handled, please let me know. I may not agree, but I'm willing to consider suggestions. That is how the -x option (save extra lines file in the menu) and the new approach used in version 1.40 both came about. This process repeats until the recipes look right to me. Or until a few manual changes are all that is required. Typically, at most two passes have been required. You may take several until you get a handle on what the program expects. Frank Skelly uses MARKIT in a slightly different approach to using MMCONV. He has threatened to write better documentation and presumably will include a description. For now this is a message he sent (slightly edited): --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 08-26-93 (23:19) Number: 12001 From: Frank Skelly Refer#: NONE To: LINDA FIELDS Recvd: NO Subj: MM versions Conf: (57) Cuisine --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LF>FS>Love MMCONV. Using it to *finally* get 6 Meg of Edna's Cookbook recipes LF> >converted. *MUCH* easier than doing it by hand! LF>I have been *trying* to get someone to respond to me on just how to use LF>MMCONV, but alas and alack... no one did.. Use your word processor to remove the page breaks so that the *only* locations that have two blank lines are between the recipes. Then run MARKIT.EXE. This looks for two blank lines and adds '--MM' followed by '--'. This is the minimum that MMCONV will recognise as a MM recipe. Then run MMCONV like so: MMCONV12 inputfile (outputfile) (xxxxx) is optional. The default outputfile is 'system date' dot 1. followed by 2, 3, 4, etc. THEN run the output through your word processor again to clean up what got missed. Nothing's perfect! <G> ------------ end of Frank's message ------------------------------------- The following is a sample of what the program output looks like: MMCONV recipe.txt 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 MM0312.5: Processed: recipe.txt Recipes saved: 11 Meal Master recipes: 2 QBOOK recipes: 3 Generic recipes: 6 Lines read: 331 Lines written: 242 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. These counts are also written to the output file. The more recent versions give a breakdown by type of recipe converted. Generic is used to reference those you add --MM and --- as markers for. 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. An example of the output produced by MMCONV functionality when encountering an MM recipe: ---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v7.04 Title: Mexican Fudge Categories: Appetizers, Cheese/eggs Servings: 1 1 lb Monterey Jack cheese with 1 cn Evaporated milk (13 oz.) Jalapeno pepper 2 Eggs 1 lb Cheddar cheese 3 tb Flour Grate cheese and lay in greased 9" x 13" pan. Beat milk, eggs, and flour together, pour over cheeses. Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees F. Cut into squares or diamonds, serve hot or cold. From: Karen Mintzias Date: 03-02-93 ----- 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. If there is a newer version, you will be notified. If you include $3 S&H, the latest version will be sent to you. My profit margin is minimal so I cannot automatically ship upgrades to everyone (currently 21 people 3/94) who registers. Maybe after I win the lottery. If you have suggestions send them to the same address. I can also be contacted via RIME or I-LINK CUISINE conferences. I recently added the FIDO recipe conference to my reading. MARKIT, MSGSPLIT and MMSORT are freeware. If you really find them useful, you might consider contributing for them as well, but it is not required. MARKIT formats recipes for processing by MMCONV. With version 1.02 it also will format for QBOOK with a -Q option on the input line. MSGSPLIT divides up large files of messages (or other ASCII text) into smaller files for convenient processing by editors. MMSORT can divide up a file of MM recipes based on the category information in MMSORT.PRM. For those with several databases of recipes this can ease recipe entry. MMSORT.PRM and MMSORT2.PRM are example parameter files that I use. ver 1.1 - add TEAS to abbreviate - add OUNCES to abbreviate - translate ½ and ¼ (Stan Hall) to 1/2 and 1/4 - activate -L & -R options to supply own footer - -T option suppresses display of Titles (opposite of MMCRDTnn functioning) - -C option to change ingredient line number of chars. - add SERVING detection - caseblind CompuChef & QUIKBOOK header/footer detect - CompuChef checks for "**********" & next line "**" - handle continuation in non-MM recipes - title: cap first char of words - lower the rest - no MM count display if it is zero - skip FAT GRAMS, CHOLESTEROL & INGREDIENT lines from COMPU-CHEF ver 1.2 - add TBSPS, TBLSP, TBL, #, SML, TEA, TBLS, QTS, TSPN, TSPNS, TBLSPNS, TBLSPN to abbreviate - add gallon which overlooked before - add standard metrics for MM: kg, g, l, etc. - modify SERV checking so won't pick up preserves - handle multiple fractions, e.g., 1/4-1/2 c water - extra recipe format: *** FROM SCRATCH RECIPE BEGINS ***** ********** RECIPE ENDS ******** - save 'FromScratch' servings & place correctly - skip lines with just '.' on them - mixed case credit line set from header info - print counts of recipes & lines at end of output file as well as on the screen (MM will ignore this) ver 1.3 - fix dash handling, e.g., 4-6 pounds not split right - fix 2 6-1/4 oz cans handling - mix case categories - make sure space after servings in all cases - skip extra blank or '.' lines in directions- always keep at least one of the spaces between sections - in real MM recipe, don't stop on stars as CCHEF marker - make sure --MM marker aligns with margin: H Peagram MM header includes a --MM sequence - handle Title:Spinach Tofu Lasagne - provide space - added PINT to PT, DASH to DS, fluid oz to FL & several additional variant spellings on existing - fix From Scratch to actually work with real recipe; used bad example to develop handling - take out leading blanks in DIRECTIONS: consistency & avoids being interpreted as ingredient. - set own default category - handy on ZIP files -D or -d - look for YIELD for servings - option to save what not seen as recipe -S or -s - fix to skip DIRECTIONS ----- and INGREDIENTS --- lines regardless of length - also INSTRUCTIONS & PROCEDURE lines - generic header: look for NAME: & DATE: -x -X - pick up KEY WORDS as category: (Alvin Broughton) - must have at least one direction line, otherwise --- treated as normal rather than end of recipe - end marker of at least 3 hyphens need not be aligned with margin - but only hyphens and blanks allowed on the line - zap categories: ",MINE", " BEST", ",BEST", ",MOM'S", " MOM'S", ",ECHO", " ECHO", "CYBEREALM", "MY FAVORITE", "FAVORITE", ",MY", " MY", "*," ver 1.4 This version owes a debt to Fran McGee on FIDO. She made a comment about the amount of work that got me thinking. I think you will find MMCONV version 14 to be much more user friendly than preceding versions as a result. - Eliminate character count as guide to ingredient line; instead use first blank line as demarcation. - Skip Pileggi headings: Qty Measurement Ingredient ___---- -------- - Recognize Pileggi ____ as end of recipe - combine clove or cloves with following word correctly A point by point discussion of these items: - Eliminate character count as guide to ingredient line; instead use first blank line as demarcation. You no longer have to divide up long ingredient lines. MMCONV will format them for you. If there are blank lines within ingredients, they should be removed. If there is no blank between ingredients and directions, add one. You must have some sort of ingredients. If there are none in the recipe, just stick in none with a blank line following before the directions and you're set. - Skip Pileggi headings: Qty Measurement Ingredient ___---- -------- Pileggi puts a lot of recipes out with these two odd headings. MMCONV will now skip them and process ingredients. - Recognize Pileggi ____ as end of recipe Pileggi uses ___ rather than --- at end of his recipes. Difficult to spot as not a match. So changed MMCONV to respond to it. - combine clove or cloves with following word correctly I got tired of clove(s) followed by several spaces splitting the line. Or having to take out the spaces. I don't want to use CL for cloves since MM regards as centiliters. So I added processing to close up the spacing for cloves. That is: 3 cloves garlic processes to 3 cloves garlic appropriately spaced. Formerly thought garlic was a second column! ver 1.5 - CLRSCR at start of processing - print counts of various types of recipes (generic are the --MM marked ones) - look for MAKE before SERV to handle "makes 8 servings" - put serving problem on one line rather than 2 - provide a full screen input format - continue support of shorthand version as well - add file display if * in filename entered - handle head(s),stalk(s),pieces(s),bag(s),ear(s), glass(es), inch(es), box(es), of, env, bunch(es), like cloves in 1.40 - if hit and skip "DIRECTION" line, switch from ingredient processing - skip duplicate KEYWORD or CATEGOR (VILLARREAL) - zap category OSG1966 & some others - CTN for carton, LAR for large and various others added - fix so recognizes SERV or MAKE or YIELD with '(' before it - print name of file processed in the output file & on screen ver 1.6 - eliminate default footer of Converted by MMCONV, etc. leave blank if not provided or available from msg - change to MMMMM as bottom marker - skip TITLE: if appears after in recipe (some QBOOK have) - re-enable ? from startup & show how to run - put registration info as option (thanks, Sylvia) as people indicate can't find in docs - add space before numeric for Sylvia Steiger & GENIE - zap categories not set- fixed to be set and display - modified message at bottom about starting program Categories that ZAP CATEGORIES removes: "RGG3","OURS","MINE","TRY IT", "UUCP","RACENET","ROBERTS","GENIE","PRODIGY","HOT DOG","PERSONAL", "FCB", ",MINE", " BEST", ",BEST", ",MOM'S", " MOM'S", ",ECHO", " ECHO", "CYBEREALM", "MY FAVORITE", "FAVORITE", "OSG1966", ",MY", " MY", "*," 'Non-measure' measures that MMCONV closes the space after rather than treating following ingredient as a second column: "WHOLE","STK","ENVELOPE","ENV", "ENV","BUNCH","BUNCHES","SQUARES","SQ","SQUARE","JUMBO","XLG","X-LG", "BOX", "BOXES", "INCH", "INCHES", "GLASS", "GLASSES", "CLOVES", "CLOVE", "CLOV", "CLV", "HEADS", "HEAD", "BAG", "BAGS", "STICK", "STICKS", "PIECES", "PIECE", "STALK", "STALKS","STKS","STA","EAR", "EARS","STRIPS","STRIP","RIBS","DASH" ver 1.7 - make version a global variable for my sanity - 12/4 noticed menu has one extra line after sent 1.6 out - start ingredient list in col 12 - Randy Shearer - split line at 39 rather than 38 - Randy Shearer - handle numeric differently so 9" pie crust handled - messing up 'of' handling- modified to remove 'of' as first word of ingredient line - Randy Shearer - store BlueWave date correctly- Dale Shipp - store the parameters entered for next run- clear registration. Store default cat; titles; generic; & zap - fix so setting 'generic head' correctly when run from menu - add 'CU' for cup - Sylvia Steiger - skip FROM:, COOKING TIME:, PREP:, COOK:, DESCRIPTION : MARINATE: before ingredients (asst'd; Mike Bowers) - handle RECIPE NAME : in title (Mike Bowers) - swap servings & categories for Recipe Box (Bowers) - recognize CATEGORY : (Bowers) - accept H for quantity for HEADER To do (future stuff): - adjustable default serving - conference or area option - 1-3 (ranges) handled better ??? - generic not work on BWAVE?? - fix MM indentation in directions - Larry Christley - allow for big comment like Sylvia and Dale use (read in from designated file?) - fix MM missing YIELD quantity, formatting?