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^CBy Daniel Tobias

   This month we've got a special program that's really cookin'.  When we 
published recipes contributed by readers in two previous issues, they recieved 
a generally favorable reception as a change of pace.  Now, recipe lovers get a 
bigger treat.  We are presenting a sampler from Vanilla Software's ^1Diskette 
^1Cookbook^0 series.  This consists of a set of recipes presented by an easy-to-use
program which allows you to search for and print out any recipe, scale recipes 
up or down to suit your needs, and generate a shopping list.  In our sampler, 
we have picked a set of Southern dishes, including some of Louisiana's Cajun 
cuisine.  There are also some Irish treats for St. Patrick's Day.  Take a byte! 

   As usual, the special program is not the only thing on the issue.  ^1Label 
^1Printer^0 is a simple program letting you keep all your mailing lists.  ^1Casino 
^1Craps^0 gives you the thrill of placing bets and rolling dice without really 
losing your shirt.  But if you're planning an actual trip to Las Vegas or 
Atlantic City, you can use the program to bone up on betting strategies before 
you put real dough on the line.  ^1Puzzle 15^0 implements the classic number-
sliding puzzle.  Check its "Read It" text for a secret option you can use to 
fool your friends.  And, if you're the sort who's into sorting, John Sigle's A 
Pair of Sorts will teach you two popular algorithms.  Plus, all the regular 
features are here, such as ^1Print Shop Images^0, ^1Blue Notes^0 from the readers, 
news and reviews ^1On the Editor's Desk^0, and ^1Bits 'n PC's^0 of information.

   A few notes before I close:  A couple of modifications to the BIG BLUE DISK 
operating system have been made this month in response to reader requests.  One 
change simplifies the procedure for copying an issue to a hard disk or other 
high-capacity medium large enough to hold both disks of an issue.  In issues 
prior to this, once you copied all files from both disks to your target drive, 
you had to edit the STATUS.DAT file manually to change the disk number (in the 
line right below the issue date) to a zero, to prevent the system from asking 
for disk swaps.  Starting this issue, though, our system automatically senses 
when you are running it from a high-capacity drive (including hard disks, 3 1/2"
disks, and sufficiently-large RAMdisks).  So you no longer need to do any 
manual editing for this and subsequent issues.

   Another change handles a compatibility problem with certain EGA (Enhanced 
Graphics Adapter) systems.  Users were reporting various problems, ranging from 
messed-up screens to a complete system hang, occurring after the "screen bounce"
when you hit the end of a text article.  We inserted a routine that suppresses 
the bounce when an EGA was detected, but this detection was not fully reliable.
Hence, a new option:  Start up BIG BLUE DISK by typing ^1GO E^0 (instead of just
^1GO^0), and our system will assume you have an EGA regardless of what adapter it
thinks it detects.  Conversely, ^1GO C^0 causes the system to assume a plain CGA.
As before, ^1GO M^0 forces monochrome mode.  Try the option that matches your 
system if you don't think BIG BLUE DISK is detecting it properly by itself. 

   ^1Bug Spray Department^0:  There were a couple of errors last issue (#16).  The
^1Murder In The Museum^0 adventure game has a bug: it crashes if you type an 
uppercase letter.  Solution: type all your input in lowercase.  Also, the table 
of contents says that there are 27 ^1Print Shop Images^0, but there are actually 
only nine.  No, your PC hasn't misplaced the other eighteen; the table of 
contents entry was a misprint. 

   Regarding earlier issues:  Many users (particluarly of Tandy computers) have
experienced difficulty running issue #15's ^1ScreenMaker^0 series of programs.  
From reader feedback, it would appear that, on some systems, the programs do 
not run properly under DOS versions prior to 3.10.  Hence, if you can't get 
the programs to run properly, you might want to try to get hold of a more 
recent DOS master disk, boot that, and run ^1ScreenMaker^0 again.  Another DOS 
incompatibility has caused some users problems in running the accounting 
programs from #14; see the ^1Blue Notes^0 text for help on that.

   Well, that's all I have to say for now.  Enjoy this issue.