Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/649a.lha/BonAppetit_v1.3/BonAppetit.Doc.pp/BonAppetit.Doc

Text File | 1992-07-04 | 39KB | 898 lines

                             Bon Appetit v1.3
                             ----------------

                             February 4, 1992

                     An Amiga Recipe Database Manager

                              by Boris Shor

                  Copyright (c) 1991,1992 by Boris Shor



Background
----------

    Around late 1987 or early 1988 I downloaded "Chef", a CP/M
recipe database. I booted up CP/M in my Commodore 128, and loaded
Chef up. I was amazed. Here was a useful and exciting use for
computers, I thought. Type in "dessert" as a keyword, and 15
desserts pop up. But it had its problems. One was ease of use and
flexibility; frankly, there wasn't very much of either. Another
was speed; a trip to McDonald's and back with two greasy burgers
took less time than a search of a full-fledged database of
recipes. So I decided to write my own recipe database, loosely
based on Chef: ComputerChef 128. Basic 7.0 on the 128 was
powerful and the idea to use records was workable, but program
development didn't get too far.

    Enter the Amiga. Frankly, I was blown away by this
incredible machine. But my dream didn't die. My Amiga blew away
any 128 or CP/M with its horsepower, surely my recipe database
could be much better? I looked around BBS's and disk libraries
(like Fred Fish's), and was disappointed to see that there wasn't
ONE publically available PD or Shareware recipe database for the
Amiga. This was the final impetus. After nearly 1 1/2 years of
coding beginning in early 1990, the first version of my dream is
now a reality: Bon Appetit v1.0.

    Version 1.3 is the fourth release of Bon Appetit, and is now
a much better program.


Introduction
------------

    Bon Appetit is a shareware recipe database manager for the
Commodore Amiga line of computers based on fast random access
files. With it, you can quickly and easily maintain a database
(collection of data) of your favorite recipes. Later, you can use
it to retrieve recipes according to your search characteristics.
Looking for desserts? Just select keyword search, then enter
"dessert". What about a use for that zucchini, or are you looking
for something with cinnamon (both ingredient searches)? Bon
Appetit also has an assortment of recipe utilities to make life
with your recipe database easier. All of Bon Appetit is menu
driven, meaning there are no complicated commands to remember,
and should be pretty easy to use.


What's Shareware?
-----------------

    Bon Appetit is a shareware program. It is not in the public
domain. This means that you are free (and greatly encouraged!) to
copy and distribute this program as much as you can. Just make
sure that you provide the whole "BonAppetit13.lzh" distribution, in
the original, UNALTERED, state. After using it for a trial period
of 30 fun-filled days, you are obliged to either send in the
nominal registration fee (and get all sorts of goodies: free
updates, more recipes, source listing, and a clear conscience!
:-> ), or to delete the program from your system. I am also selling
additional recipes in Bon Appetit format for a very nominal fee.
See the end of this documentation for my address and more
information on how to register this program.

    When you copy around this program, please, do not alter the
original distribution. Of course you are free to distribute your
own recipe databases or recipe output files any way you wish, but keep
them separate from the program distribution. Please upload your
recipe databases, the more recipes this program has available, the
better for everyone.


More Legal Mush:
----------------

    This program may be distributed in freeware type disk
collections like Fred Fish's, and may NOT be distributed for ANY
profit without my permission. If you bought this program for more
than $6.00 or so, you have been ripped off. Go back to the place
where you bought it and demand your money back.

    I am not responsible for any disasters, natural or man-made,
that occur as a result of running this program. So if the program
accidently sets off a spontaneous fusion reaction in your blender, I
ain't responsible. :-)


Why should I throw out my good old index cards?
-----------------------------------------------

    For the very reason you bought your computer; it makes
things easier, and allows you to do things you havn't been able
to do practically before. You can easily give a copy of your
recipes to others, or get a copy of others' recipes. Recipe
databases are much easier to back up. You can't spill milk on
your recipe database and have the ink blot. Typing is much easier
to read. And try to match the computer's speed and flexibility.
Furthermore, Bon Appetit has an ability to import recipes
which could help you build libraries of recipes with
no typing on your part. Imagine hundreds of recipes on a single
floppy disk! In addition, it makes communication with the international
"Cooking" echo on the Fido-net computer network system (free! --
see the end of this file for more information) much easier,
as well as special interest groups on commercial networks like GEnie.
Remember, however, the computer is just a tool like a car.
Without recipes (fuel) it's just not very spectacular (although
it still destroys index cards).


Great! I'm convinced! What do I need to get started?
----------------------------------------------------

    Any Amiga should be fine. A hard drive is optional but makes
things even faster! A printer is optional, but is of course
needed to print out recipes.

    A newly formatted floppy disk should hold around 440 normal sized
recipes under 1.3 oldfilesystem floppy format, and 465 recipes on
Workbench 2.0's new ROM based fastfilesystem floppy format. Hard
drives can store 530 or so recipes per megabyte of storage space.
Bon Appetit itself at this time can "only" handle about 2700 recipes
in each recipe database. This requirement will be eliminated when I
implement long integers as index types. Databases, of course, are not
limited.

    Bon Appetit requires "arp.library" to be in your LIBS:
directory. It's included in this distribution. Simply copy it
into that directory.

    This distribution of Bon Appetit already includes 20 recipes
so you can start using the program right away.


Installing and Using Bon Appetit
--------------------------------

This distribution of Bon Appetit should come with the following files:

BonAppetit              ......... main program
ConvertP                ......... ".pointer" file conversion program
                                  from pre 1.2 format to 1.2 and up format
BonAppetit.Doc          ......... this file
BonAppetit.Changes      ......... revision history
BonAppetit.ReadMe       ......... previous users should read this file
arp.library             ......... required library
InstallArpLib           ......... icon file that copies arp.library for you
BAsample.txt            ......... example Bon Appetit recipe to
                                  practice importing
MMsample.txt            ......... example Meal-Master recipe
CCsample.txt            ......... example CompuChef recipe
QBsample.txt            ......... example QuikBook recipe
<<BonAppetit_Data>>     ......... directory of recipe data
   bon.defaults         ......... current defaults (preferences)
   orig.defaults        ......... original defaults
   recipes1.start       ......... name, comment, yield, and
                                   "hub" file for recipes1
   recipes1.ingredients ......... ingredients file for
                                   recipes1
   recipes1.keywords    ......... keywords file for recipes1
   recipes1.recipe_body ......... recipe body text file
   recipes1.pointer     ......... index information for database
   <<Bon_Databases>>    ......... subdirectory of known databases
      recipes1          ......... database name


Installation
------------

    Your distribution should unpack to the above directory format,
or if it wasn't packed, it should already have the above format.
You can copy the program anywhere on your floppy or hard disk (is
optical too much to hope for???), as long as the above directory
format is maintained.

    Bon Appetit requires the "arp.library" included with the
distribution to be copied to your system's (sys:) libs directory.
The "sys:" disk is the disk or hard drive partition you booted
up with. This is very simply done by double-clicking on the
InstallArpLib icon included with Bon Appetit. This will
automatically copy the arp.library for you.

    Now you are ready to run Bon Appetit. Simply double-click on
its icon from Workbench, or type "BonAppetit" from Shell.

    Rarely, you may encounter a gadget box saying "Device function
unavailable at line xx in module SCREEN". This error indicates the
program was unable to open a window. This in turn probably means
that chip memory is low. Close a couple of windows in Workbench
and try again.


Recipe Database Notes
---------------------

    The ARP file requester is employed by Bon Appetit. It will
automatically open the "Bon_Databases" subdirectory within the
"BonAppetit_Data" directory. It will also be ready to open the default
recipe database. To select the default, click on the OK button or
press RETURN. To choose another database (if others are present), click
on their names twice or once and then OK.

    If there are any problems, just hit the close button or click on
CANCEL. Don't mess around with the DRIVE and PARENT buttons, because
you'll have to select the path to the "Bon_Databases" subdirectory
all over again.

    A list of recipe databases is kept in the "Bon_Databases" directory.
You will not be allowed to access a database not in this directory.
If you are informed by the computer that the database you
requested was not found, try checking the spelling you entered or
that the disk you are using does in fact contain the database
you want to use.


General Comments
----------------

    One confusing point should be cleared up: "tagging" refers to
marking recipes for ordinary, non-destructive, Bon Appetit usage (such
as selecting different recipes for a meal); while "marking" refers
to marking recipes for eventual deletion from your recipe database.

    Nearly all the menus are now "hotkeyed", that is to say, you
need no longer enter a RETURN after making a menu selection.

    When you are viewing long lists of information such as lists of
found recipes, lists of ingredients, actual recipes, etc., you can
pause the display by pressing any key, and any other to unpause. In
addition, the program will pause by itself after a screenful of
such information, and it will prompt you to press any key to continue.

    For now, there are just two pull-down menu options. One is an
"About" and the other is a "Quit."

    Version 1.0 users of Bon Appetit are advised to read the
"BonAppetit.ReadMe" file in this distribution, since the structure
of the recipe database has changed slightly, as well as the
default colors.


The Main Menu
-------------

    From here, all functions of Bon Appetit are selected and are
returned to. The names of the functions are pretty much self-
explanatory (Add recipe, search/view recipes, etc.)


Enter New Recipes
-----------------

    One can enter new recipes using this function. Recipes may
be entered into a new recipe database, or to the default one (see
Default Preferences option). You will be prompted with a series
of several screens.


                    Field Length Restrictions (in characters)
                    -----------------------------------------

name                    ......... 38
comment                 ......... 78
yield                   ......... 30
ingredient amount       ......... 15    (a limit of 50 ingredients)
ingredient text         ......... 55
keywords                ......... 38
recipe body text        ......... 78

* Note : You don't have to remember these limits. See paragraph below
for more information. Also, these "restrictions" are not restrictive
at all, if you look at the vast majority of recipes.


Notes on entering recipes through Bon Appetit
---------------------------------------------

    The line editor that is used in Bon Appetit will not allow you to
go past the limit for a field. It will flash the screen, and only
accept a RETURN or a backspace key at this limit. A RETURN indicates that
you are satisfied with the data you just entered. The line editor will not
let you delete past the left margin. It will accept TABs.

    Press RETURN when you wish to skip something. Press RETURN twice for
example (once for each field) when entering ingredients at an "Enter
ingredient amount?" prompt to exit to the next screen. Press RETURN once
at any keyword prompt, or any recipe text line. Don't worry about errors
that you havn't deleted with the backspace key; there is an editing
check screen before the recipe is recorded ("saved") onto disk. In
addition, you can always edit any field at any later time you wish,
and you can add a field at any later time.

    The comment line ideally should be nice, short, and descriptive.
Think of it as a tasty aroma enticing you. "My aunt bakes this
cake every Thanksgiving, and I love it!"

    The yield should be a precise measurement, for future recipe
recalculation (see Future of Bon Appetit at the end of this
file). "5 servings" is good; "About 5 or so thingamajigs" isn't.

    The precise measurement applies to ingredients as well. "1 1/2
cups" is fine, as is "1.5 cups." An example of an ingredient
amount is something like "5 cups" or "2 squares", while the
ingredient text would be "milk" or "chocolate," respectively. These
precise measurements are important for recipe recalculation, a program
addition sometime in the near future (see end of file).

    To make your recipe body texts look nicer, insert blank lines
where you feel they're necessary (take a look at some of recipes
in recipes1 for an example). To do this, type a SPACE, and then a
RETURN.


Importing Bon Appetit recipes
-----------------------------

    Bon Appetit will most easily import recipes it itself exported
in the Search/View function of the program. To import multiple recipes,
simply link together the output files exported by Bon Appetit. You
can do this in an editor, or through Shell, type "join rec1 rec2 as
comboimport". Then just select comboimport through the file
selector when prompted to do so (after selecting your recipe database).

    You can also import recipes you yourself have created, outside
of Bon Appetit. What this means in practical terms is that you no
longer need rely on the rather primitive line editor found in the
program, but you can use your favorite editor (any that output
ASCII text files). You must, however, follow the form of an exported
Bon Appetit recipe, and you must abide by the limits that the
program imposes on the line editor. The following is the
required form (CR = RETURN):

Recipe name (no need to center)
CR
Comment (optional)
CR
ingredient 1 amount (max 15 places)  actual ingredient 1 (MUST start at
                                     position 17)
.... your ingredients here in the above form (No returns in between,
     and if you wish to announce ingredients, space over to pos. 17
     and start there, ex.,         -----TOPPING-----).
CR
recipe body (CAN have returns in between)
CR
Keywords: (type in the word)
keyword1
..... your keywords here
CR
Makes (type in the word, a space, then) the serving amount of your recipe.
CR
CR

And then your next recipe, and so on.

    Something like this is tough to explain, <I'M> confused looking
at those directions. Check out the example "BAsample.txt" recipe
to get an idea of what the program wants for importation, and practice
importing with it.

    Version 1.1 introduced a slightly new output, so v1.0 recipes will
not import directly into all succeeding versions. To import Bon Appetit
v1.0 recipes, simply add two blank lines after the "Makes..." line on
v1.0 outputted recipes.


Importing Meal-Master recipes
-----------------------------

    Meal-Master is one of the most popular recipe database managers
for MessyDos (IBM) computers. It is commonly used in Fido-net, and MANY
recipes are out there for it. This means that you, the Amiga user, can now
have access to those recipes, and begin building a library of recipes
alot faster than you thought possible.

    Bon Appetit can now import Meal-Master recipes. BUT, they must be
in a form Bon Appetit likes. Luckily, these changes range from none
to minor. Bon Appetit wants (for now) single-column ingredients
(you can do this yourself if it is in double-column format
with an editor). In addition, the actual ingredient must begin
at the 12th column. The recipe name, category field, and serving
size must all begin at the 13th column (99% of Meal-Master recipe
do this already). That's it. You may wish to remove any CTRL-L's you
find in MM recipes. Bon Appetit can import multiple recipes from a
file, just make sure there isn't any junk between the recipe
delimiters (the long lines of dashes). Check out "MMsample.txt" to
practice importing from a Meal-Master exported recipe.

    Meal-Master's categories are analogous to Bon Appetit's keywords.
The difference is that Bon Appetit's use of keywords allows it to
be more flexible than Meal-Master in this regard. Categories are
translated into keywords, by being delimited by spaces. For example,
a category line of "desserts cakes Cajun" would turn into three keywords,
namely, desserts, cakes, and Cajun. A problem arises when something
like "main dish" is found - this should be in reality just one keyword,
as it is one category. Importing will break this into two keywords,
main and dish. To fix this, before importing, insert a "-" (dash)
in between the two words, eliminating the space between them. You
may also wish to add "categories" of your own, so you can add
keywords now much faster rather than adding them in at a later time.

    Meal-Master recipes do not contain comment lines. You will simply
see a blank line in the space for the comment line when viewing a
Meal-Master imported recipe.


Importing Compu-Chef recipes
----------------------------

    Compu-Chef is another popular recipe database for MS-DOS computers.
It was actually designed as a successor to Meal-Master. Compu-Chef
importing is quite easy; it is the nearest to automatic in importing.

    Remember, like Meal-Master, the ingredients must be in
single-column format. I havn't seen any Compu-Chef recipes that do
not have this, but... Don't mess with the columnar format of the
ingredients. The actual ingredient must start at column 23, and to
conform to the format of nearly all Compu-Chef recipes, the measurement
minus the number (eg., lb, cup, etc.) starts at column 17. Categories
are separated by spaces of over 2 spaces length. For example, a
category line of "Main dish  meats" would translate into two
keywords: "Main dish" and "meats". I advise adding keywords (categories)
before you import, saving you alot of time.

    Compu-Chef recipes do not have comment lines. See Meal-Master
importing above for effect of this.

    Take a look at "CCsample.txt" for an example of the way a Compu-Chef
recipe should look for importing into Bon Appetit.


Importing QuikBook recipes
--------------------------

    QuikBook is another recipe database for MS-DOS computers. It has
become quite popular lately, more so than Meal-Master and Compu-Chef.
It is also quite unstructured, so importing is not as automatic as
Meal-Master and Compu-Chef importing. One reason is that QuikBook is
not designed to resize recipes, and Bon Appetit has "hooks" for
just such a feature, and thus requires a separation of the ingredient
amount and the actual ingredient for the future implementation of
such a feature, so that older recipe databases can still be resized.

    A word of advise. Get comfortable with an editor. You'll need it
for this, as well as other parts of Bon Appetit.

    Bon Appetit will have indigestion over recipes without ingredients
or a serving amount. You must have a serving amount line like this:
"Yield:" or "Servings:" or anything else that has a colon at the end.
"Makes" is not sufficient. You can use your editor's search-and-replace
feature to replace all "Yield" and "Makes" into "Yield:".

    QuikBook keywords are separated by commas and, more rarely, by
slashes (/). Add more keywords before importing to save time.

    As stated previously, since Bon Appetit has hooks for future
resizing of recipes, it must be able to distinguish ingredient amounts
"1 cup", "2", "3 Tbs.", etc., from actual ingredients "milk","large eggs",
etc. The easiest way to do this with an editor is to place the cursor
over the first character of the actual ingredients and to TAB over to
a column position (under AZ 1.5 I use column 17). Bon Appetit will ask
you for this column position of all the actual ingredients (they should
all be at the same column postion). Use 17 for the sample QuikBook recipe
included in this distribution, "QBsample.txt". There should be no
recipe text before the ingredients. If there are, cut it and paste it
below the ingredients. There should be no blank lines in between
ingredients.

    QuikBook recipes don't have comment lines. See Meal-Master importing
above for the effect of this.


General Importing Notes
-----------------------

    Getting perfect imports takes a little practice, but the benefits
will amaze you. Practice with the sample exports from Bon Appetit,
Meal-Master, Compu-Chef, and QuikBook.

    Use an editor that you like, preferably one with a column counter
to save you some tears. If you see any characters in reverse-video,
such as M in reverse-video, don't panic. The M in reverse is simply
a RETURN. To remove other letters in reverse-video (better to do it
than have future grief), just do a search/replace with CTRL-<letter>
and nothing for replace. You may also see other strange characters
like a little block. AZ 1.5 shows this instead of reverse-video
M's under Workbench 2.0. Type in CTRL-M to do a block.

    Recipe field limits that exist for entering recipes manually still
hold for importing recipes. Thus, if you see a recipe name over 38
characters in length, you should shorten it.

    BACKUP (argh, that word again...) your recipe database files!!!
Especially before doing something like recipe importation.
I can't stress this enough. An ounce of prevention really IS worth
a pound of cure.


Edit/Delete Existing Recipes
----------------------------

    The editing and the marking for deletion of recipes already
saved onto disk is handled here. You can change any field of that
recipe onto disk. You can also add ingredients (but keeping total
ingredients under 50), keywords, and lines of recipe text from
this section of the program. Briefly, if you are not modifying the last
recipe, the modified recipe is copied and tacked onto the end of
database, and the old unmodified recipe is marked for deletion.
You are advised to add fields as soon as possible to recipes.
See below for more information on marking recipes for deletion.

    If you wish to delete a recipe, choose "Mark
recipes for deletion." This leaves the recipe on the disk.
However, that recipe is marked for deletion and is in effect
invisible to searches. When you wish to actually delete the
marked recipes, then select "Recipe utilities" from the Main Menu
and "Delete marked recipes" from the Recipe utilities menu. See
below for more information on the deletion of marked recipes.

    You can now mark ranges of recipes. See below under "Mass Export"
for an explanation of the range format.

    One can quit before any accidental "damage" is done onto
disk by entering the letter `Q' at a prompt that says you have an
option to do so. By the way, you can enter alphabetical commands
in upper or lower case anywhere in the program.


Recipe Utilities
----------------

    Various recipe functions are available here. You can list
the recipe databases known on the program disk; find out some
information on a particular database; and list the names,
ingredients, and keywords in a database.

    When viewing lists, you can prematurely exit from the list
operation by hitting the ESC key.

    Additionally, lists of recipe names and keywords can be output
to the printer or a disk file (so you can show off all the recipes
you now have!). Even better, this output can be sorted very simply
by AmigaDos. At a Shell/CLI prompt (or Execute from Workbench 2.0),
type in "sort from <filename> to <sortfile> colstart 7". This sorts
the output very quickly from the original filename Bon Appetit to
the new, sorted, "sortfile."

    You may delete one, several, or all tags on your recipes here.
Note that deleting a tag is only removing the tag from the recipe,
not actually deleting the recipe. This is like unfolding a dog-eared
page in a book.

    You may also delete the recipes you had previously marked
for deletion here. The method used for deletion needs a little
explanation. Because the structure of the recipe database files
is optimized for very fast searches, I had to devise a compromise of
speed and flexibility in deleting marked recipes. A new recipe database
is created when you want to delete the marked recipes, and all the
recipes NOT marked for deletion are copied into the new database from
the old one. Recipes are renumbered as needed so that recipe numbers
are consecutive in the new recipe database.

    Again, because of the structure of the recipe databases,
you can very quickly delete a recipe without the above copying,
but only if it is the LAST recipe in the database. Thus, if you
entered a recipe, and realized you'd like to delete it, it is
advisable to mark it and delete it before you enter any more
recipes. That way deleting it will be fast and easy.

    Otherwise, if recipes marked for deletion are present that
are not the last recipe in the database, deletion will take quite
a bit of time, perhaps a couple of minutes, depending on the hardware
you are using. IMPORTANT! The program provides an estimate of when it will
finish, which is accurate on a 68000 Amiga with a hard drive. Adjust
the time according to your hardware. Take a coffee break in the
meantime, and don't smash your drive if it goes over the time estimate.

    If you are still adamant about demolishing the old recipe
database, then select "Delete recipe database" from this menu,
and enter the name of the old recipe database at the appropriate
prompt.


Search/View Recipes
-------------------

    This is the heart of Bon Appetit. According to various
search characteristics such as recipe number, recipe name, recipe
ingredient, or recipe keyword, you can search any recipe data
base on the disk to find the recipes you are looking for.
Searches are fairly rapid due to the use of random files.

    When entering a search characteristic, you only have to
enter a small portion of it. This allows great flexibility. For
example, calling up a name search of "Cake" might show you "Aunt
Ethel's Thanksgiving Cake" or "Triple Fudge Delight Cake"
(assuming you have those recipes!) Calling up "Ca" would also
reach those recipes, as well as "Cantelope Surprise" (!).  A
search of "ake" would also find those cake recipes.

    Searches are case-INSENSITIVE. This means that even if the
name of a recipe is "Tuna Cheese Melt", a search of "TUNA",
"tuna", or "tUnA" would all find the proper recipe.

    When you are presented with a list of recipes that fulfill
your search request, enter any of the number of the recipes (not
the actual recipe number, which won't be seen, but the number to
the left of the recipe you wish to view). Alternatively, you may
redisplay the list on screen, print it to the printer, or return
the Search/View Recipes menu.

    After you select a recipe, it will be accessed by the
computer and you will then be presented with a choice to view it
on screen, or output it to the printer or another device. See
General Notes above for information on pausing the display on
the screen.

    You can output the recipe to another device or a file. For
example, you can output it to a file on your disk, by typing
"DF0:Dessert". More importantly, you can output it to a disk
file, or RAM: file, and then "upload" it to a computer
network. See below under Fido-net and other networks for more
information.


Tagging Recipes
---------------

    You now have the ability to "tag" recipes, similar in concept
to dog-earing pages in a book. Thus, if you want to have several
searches to plan a several-course dinner, you can tag the recipes
you'll want to use, and then peruse them at your leisure.

    You'll be asked if you wish to tag recipes after recipe output.
You can view all the tagged recipes you have under the "View tagged
recipes" option in the Search/View recipe menu. If you do ordinary
searches, or list names, and Bon Appetit encounters a tagged recipe,
it will insert an asterisk (*) before the recipe name to remind you
that the recipe is tagged.


Recipe Browsing
---------------

    Browsing allows you to easily examine the recipes Bon Appetit
shows you in the list of found recipes. You can move back and
forth through the list, examining and outputting them at your leisure.
Alternatively, if you are viewing by recipe number, browsing moves
back and forth by recipe number.

    After recipe output, you will be presented with a "Browse"
query. Browsing is accomplished by pressing either the left or
right cursor keys, moving backward and forward, respectivelly.


Mass Export
-----------

    Before v1.3 of Bon Appetit, output of recipes could only be done
in single recipe cycles; making output of long list of recipes very
drudgerous. Now, Bon Appetit can mass export recipes. It can export
all "tagged" recipes, or recipe ranges. Such a recipe range is entered
in the format "lowbound-hibound", where lowbound is the lowest recipe
number to be included, and hibound is (surprise!) the highest recipe
number to be included. Example: "25-124" outputs 100 recipes.


Changing Default Preferences
----------------------------

    Bon Appetit has its very own default "preferences", which is
handled through the program itself. Default preferences are those
things that remain the same every time you use Bon Appetit
(unless you change them) -- things like screen colors and various
disk defaults.

    Eight colors are used in the custom screen for this program.
Though that can't be changed, the individual colors can be. I
have it set up the way I like it, which should be fine for most
people: a dark blue background with grey, yellow, and green text
foreground (these are the most used colors).

    Upon selecting the color change menu, you are presented with
a list of the eight colors. The names and the values to the right
of the menu choices are the default color names and their
respecting Red, Green, and Blue levels. To change any of the
eight colors, select it from the color menu. You are then shown
the Red, Green, and Blue values for the currently selected colors
(ranging from 0 to 1). To add, press the first letter of the
color group, and to subtract, press the letter to the left of the
"adding" letter. For example: press "R" (or "r") to add in .05
increments to the Red value, and "E" to subtract in .05 steps. Do
the same for Green ("G" + .05, "F" - .05) and Blue ("B" + .05,
"V" - .05). When you are done changing things around, press
RETURN, and voila! Your new values are being used. If you have
messed up, you can manually change things back to around where
the old defaults were (just read the screen), or you can load in
the original defaults from disk (from the "orig.defaults" file).
Note that any changes are not permanent until you've saved them
onto the defaults file ("bon.defaults"). So if you really mess
up, load in the original defaults, and save them as "your"
defaults. DON'T mess with the "orig.defaults" file! It is a
backup for the regular "bon.defaults", and it just might help you
out from between a rock and a hard place.

    There are only two default disk preferences. The first is
the default data path to Bon Appetit's data files, which are
usually held in a directory called "BonAppetit_Data". You really
shouldn't play around with this default too much, as you're
liable to miss loading in the preferences as you start up the
program as well as ALL of your recipe data. The second is the
default recipe database. Sick and tired of entering the name of
one database when you are using it most of the time? Just change
the default to what its name is, and whenever a prompt asks you
for the name of a database, just press RETURN! What was said
above applies here too. Changes aren't permanent until you save
them onto the defaults file. Messups can be corrected by
restoring the original defaults and saving them.

    Please note that the searching function will skip those
recipes that are marked for deletion in a database, and will not
allow direct access to them via searching by recipe number.


Using Bon Appetit with Fido-Net and other networks
--------------------------------------------------

    What is Fido-net? It is an international personal computer
network with more than 8,000 nodes (electronic bulliten boards,
or BBS's) world-wide. It contains many areas of discussion called
"echos" where users may discuss, argue, trade information, and
even trade programs. The "Cooking" echo (there are also other
food related echos) is an excellent one. Something like 100
messages are received every day by BBS's (nodes) in this echo...
all dealing with cooking! Imagine asking the nation, "Does
anybody have any recipes for bluefish? I can't find them
anywhere!" Within a few days, you can expect to receive messages
from across the country (and some from Canada, and other parts of
the world), answering your request. You can and should help others
as well.

    Wouldn't typing up each recipe from your index cards be a
drag? Instead, you can use your Amiga to its full capabilities.
If you have enough memory, and your terminal program multitasks
(most should), simply open Bon Appetit, and output the recipe you
want onto a text file in RAM:. Then, type up an introduction for
your recipe in the terminal program while you're online in the
BBS, and then upload as an ASCII file that recipe you stored in
the RAM disk.

    The same goes for other national networks like UseNet, and
commercial networks like GEnie. You can find me in the Food and Wine
RoundTable on GEnie.

    Bon Appetit is becoming increasingly useful for Fido-net
communications. It can now import its own format, and 3 MS-DOS
recipe formats (Meal-Master, Compu-Chef, and QuikBook). You no
longer have to retype the recipes somebody exported to the
network.


The Speed of Bon Appetit
------------------------

    Here are some statistics showing Bon Appetit's speedy nature in
searching through recipes on my Amiga 500 system with a Trumpcard
Professional controller and Maxtor drive.

Recipe Field Type and #        Time              Rate
-----------------------      ---------         --------
128 recipe names              2.6 sec          49.23 names/sec
394 keywords                  4.6 sec          85.65 keywords/sec
1355 ingredients             15.3 sec          88.56 ingredients/sec

    I now have over 800 recipes in my Bon Appetit database, and the
rates have increased. The recipe name search now has a 56 names/sec
rate. Keyword searches have a 94 keywords/sec rate. Ingredient
searches have a 96 ingredients/sec rate.

    Your times should be even faster if you have an accelerator, or
they will be slower if you are on a floppy-based system.


The Future of Bon Appetit
-------------------------

* Recipe recalculation -- adjusts recipes for less/more ingredients, or
  less/more servings.

* Grocery list creation

* More import utilities (tell me which other recipe format you want to
  import)

* Even more Intuition hooks -- more Amiga'zed. More gadgets, windows,
  requestors, mouse activity. Release 2 of HiSoft's compiler should
  allow me to easily create these. The look will be of a "Workbench
  2.0" 3D approach.

* Bug fixes (bugs? Nah... :-) )


Credits
-------

* Commodore        - For producing such great computers that are
                      such fun to work and play with.
* Michtron         - For writing HiSoft Basic Professional, an
                      excellent product that's blazingly fast
                      besides.
* My Mom           - For getting me interested in cooking.
* My Family        - For putting up with me and my computer
                      antics.
* CP/M author of   - For interesting me in writing my own recipe
  "Chef"              database.
* Fidonet's Amiga  - For helping me out in tight pinches.
  Programmers Echo
* Fidonet's        - Whenever my project started dragging, I'd
  Cooking Echo        just call up and see how everyone was so
     and              interested in cooking and recipe programs,
  GEnie Food and      and only used MS-DOS programs. Thanks for
  Wine RoundTable     the motivation.


How can I register?
-------------------

    This program is shareware. You are obliged to register this program
or to delete it after using it for a trial period of 30 days. Registering
also has other benefits. $10 will register you and entitle you to a free
update mailed by me, and 15 more new recipes. $20 will register you, give
you 3 free updates, and 40 more new recipes. $30 will register you, give
you 10 free updates, and 120 more new recipes. Help support the shareware
concept.


How can I get even more recipes?
--------------------------------

    I am providing copies of recipes from my large (800 recipes and
growing fast) Bon Appetit recipe database. Write to me the number of
recipes you'd like, payment at 3 cents per recipe, and $1 for the cost
of each disk and shipping.

    I can fit about 440 or so recipes on a disk, so send $2 if you
want more than 440 recipes.


Where can I find you?
---------------------

    My programs don't contain bugs ;). If you think you've found one, either
you've gone stark raving mad, or you've just discovered a rip in the
fabric of the time-space continuum. In either case write down exactly how
and what happened, and send it off to me immediatly so I can discover which
of the two it actually is.

    Send all correspondence, money, recipe books, and/or cute
"Calvin and Hobbes" books and strips to:

Boris Shor
47 Heather Lane
Mahwah NJ 07430

Or you can find me hanging out at this Fido-net point location:

1:2606/205.3             "Boris Shor's Amiga Kitchen"

Please note that my old fidonet address was 1:269/205.3.

Or at these boards:

NAME OF BOARD         NUMBER         CONTACT:       COMMENTS
-------------     --------------  -------------  ----------------

GEnie                   n/a        L.SHOR1
Alchemiga         [phone]   Boris Shor     My fidonet "boss"
Excalibur's       [phone]   Boris Shor     ENJA Headquarters
Power Windows     [phone]   The Stranger
Splitting Atom    [phone]   Boris Shor     Fidonet/Cooking echo


Enjoy the food, have a glass of wine, and most of all, Bon Appetit!


-Boris
 2/4/92