Shareware Overload Trio 2

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Text File | 1994-03-21 | 17KB | 375 lines

Welcome to Meal-Master Menu (MMMenu)! This program was designed to allow you to use Meal-Master with recipes stored in compressed format (PKZIP, LHARC, ZOO, etc.). Please make sure you read and understand these instructions before you run MMMenu. READ THIS: --------- Delta Services and Brett Jones make no warranties, express or implied, as to the merchantability, performance or suitability for application of this program (MMMenu). By using this program, you accept full liability for any damages incurred from said use, and agree to release Delta Services and Brett Jones from liability or litigation for any reason. Now that that's out of the way ......... GETTING STARTED: --------------- First, MAKE SURE the filepath you have stored in Meal-Master (Maintenance Menu, option 'F') is the path where you want your recipes to reside while you are working on them (the compressed file does not have to be saved there). DO NOT change Meal-Master's filepath if you are running Meal-Master using MMMenu! If you need to change to a different recipe set you must first EXIT Meal-Master and run MMMenu again, changing the 'Compressed Meal-Master File' to the new recipe archive. Once you start using MMMenu, Meal-Master's 'filepath' option becomes the temporary directory you are going to use to decompress your archived recipes to. If this is the first time you are running MMMenu, the program will use the un-compressed recipes you have and will automatically compress your recipes when you exit Meal-Master. It will save the compressed recipes to the filename you provide in the 'Compressed Meal-Master File' option. Second, always make sure there is enough room on your disks to store your files. This program is *NOT* very smart; if an error occurrs during compression or decompression, you MIGHT be told [only if the compression / decompression program you are using returns an 'errorlevel']. If there is a detectable error during compression, your Meal-Master files (INDEX.*, INGRED.*, DIRECT.*, etc) will not be erased from the work directory, but your archive file probably will be. Third, Murphy's Law .... PLEASE make a backup of your recipe files before running this program. If something goes wrong it might save you hours of frustrating work trying to rebuild your recipe database.NEW FEATURES ------------ Due to popular demand, you may now use MMMenu without using an archive file. Batch duplicate flagging and Alphabetization will now function on normal Meal-Master files. Meal-Master version 8.xx files are now recognized (and version 7.xx files are STILL usable) and handled properly by MMMenu. A companion program, MMMUPDT is provided to remove Meal-Master version 7.xx files from your archives once you have updated the recipes. MMMenu can now extract messages from .QWK and BlueWave files! MMMenu can also tell (most of the time) what archiver was used to create the .MMC (archived recipes) file, so trading archived recipes is a snap! New to MMMenu version 8.0g is the ability to create a 'leftover' file to hold all the lines MMMenu doesn't consider part of a recipe during file conversion/extraction. External editing of the leftover file is now supported. UPGRADING TO VERSION 8.xx ------------------------- Meal-Master version 8.xx stores recipes in a slightly different format. In order for your version 7.xx recipes to be compatable, you should have Meal-Master update the recipes. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Run MMMenu and select option 1. Enter the name of the archive file you want to update. 2. Choose option 7 to run Meal-Master. Tell Meal-Master to update your recipe files. 3. Exit Meal-Master after the upgrade. The new files will be added to your archive. 4. Run MMMUPDT. Enter the name of the archive file, the 'flag' used to delete files (PKZip uses -d) and the 'flag' to view files (PKZip uses -v; other programs use -l). MMMUPDT will look in your archive file to see if you have the NEW recipe files. If you do, the old ones will be removed. Repeat for all of the archives you wish to upgrade.THE PROGRAM: ----------- Copy MMMenu.EXE into the directory where you have Meal-Master. When you run MMMenu, you will first see the registration screen. Once you print out the registration form, this screen goes away. If you haven't registered, then please take a moment to read the screen. Once you have pressed a key, the following menu will be displayed: 1. Compressed Meal-Master File: MEAL 2. Compression Program: PKZIP -A 3. De-Compression Program: PKUNZIP 4. Use EMS: Y 5. Convert Recipes for Import 6. Exit 7. Run Meal-Master (If you are running a registered copy of Meal-Master, you will receive an additional option: 8. Run Registered Menu) 9. Duplicate Checking 10. Alphabetize Index 11. Spelling Checker: 12. Conversion 'Leftover' file: 13. Max Leftover file length: 14. External Editor: 99. Print MMMenu Registration Form Option 1 - Compressed Meal-Master File This is the filename of the archive file that contains your Meal- Master recipes. If it doesn't exist, it will be created when you select option 7 (or run Meal-Master from option 8). You use this option to switch from one archive file to another (somewhat how the 'Filepath' option used to work). Simply enter the name of the archive file you want to use here. If you don't want to use archive files, make sure this field is blank (enter spacees and press return). Option 2 - Compression Program This option specifies the compression program AND switch(es) required to place your recipes INTO the compressed Meal-Master file. It is automatically set for PKZIP, a popular compression program, but can be changed for virtually any compression program. Please refer to the documentation provided with your compression program for any 'switches' needed to ADD files to an archive (it's usually -u). The program specified MUST either be in the same directory as MMMenu or in a directory in your PATH statement. Several choices are displayed (and if you've specified an existing archived recipe database, MMMenu will try to tell you what archiver you need to use). You may select one of them (just enter the number) or enter your own. Option 3 - De-Compression Program This is the reverse of option 2. It controls the program that REMOVES your recipes from the archive file. Again, it is automatically set for PKUNZIP, but you can change it if you like. Remember to include any switches that may be required! This file MUST also be in the same directory as MMMenu or in a directory in your PATH statement. Option 4 - Use EMS Meal-Master has the ability to use EMS memory if you have it. If you want Meal-Master to run using EMS memory, say 'Y'es to this option, otherwise say 'N'o. Option 5 - Convert Recipes for Import This option allows you to convert multiple Qbook and CompuChef recipes to Meal-Master format so you can import them into your recipe files. Since Qbook allows free-form entry of recipes this routine is NOT 100% effective, but it works on the majority of recipes. If there is a recipe in the file you are converting that has two column format for the ingredients, the second column MUST be at least 4 spaces after the first column, and start at least in column 20. If it doesn't, then you will need to edit the recipe's ingredients once you have imported it. Meal-Master recipes may also be included in the file you are converting. I usually download my messages and read them with a mail reader (SLMR [Silly Little Mail Reader]; available on most BBS's). I have the option to save the entire message area where recipes are exchanged, and use the saved file as my file to convert. This option will run through the entire file, pulling out and converting all of the Meal-Master, Qbook and CompuChef recipes.If you have entered a filename in option 12 ('Leftover File') then you will be asked if you want to create the leftover file(s). This is not automatically performed so that you can actually convert the 'leftover' file once you have edited it without creating more files to fill your disk! When you select this option you will be asked for two filenames. The first is the source file (the one with the recipes that NEED to be converted). The second is the destination filename (the file you will use for Importing into Meal-Master). Please note that neither of these files will be deleted ... you must do that by yourself once you have quit Meal-Master. If your destination file is already present, the newly converted recipes will be ADDED to it. New to MMMenu Version 8.0d - You can now enter the name of a .QWK or BlueWave packet when asked for the file to convert and MMMenu will extract and process all the messages in the message file! If you're like me, this saves the entire 'Save Messages' step from within the offline reader! MMMenu assumes that you use the same archiver with your packets as your archived recipes, but will let you know if you need to use a different command to get the files out of the packet. Make sure you enter the entire path needed to find the packet! Option 6 - Exit This allows you to exit MMMenu WITHOUT running Meal-Master. You can also enter 'EX'. Option 7 - Run Meal-Master This option initiates the process of running Meal-Master using the recipes in your compressed recipe file. For those of you that MUST know how it works, take a look at MMME.BAT after you quit from Meal-Master (this option creates an MS-DOS batch file then runs it). I would have done it differently, but have received errors when calling archivers directly from MMMenu. Option 8 - Run Registered Menu This option only displays if you have registered your copy of Meal-Master with Episoft Systems. Basically, it does the same thing as option 7, but runs MMM.EXE instead of MM.EXE. Option 9 - Duplicate Checking This will run through all the recipes in the archive file you defined in option one and will display (or display & print) any recipes that may be duplicates. The criteria for duplication is: Same Title and Same Categories (And Same 'Yeild Units' if you're using Meal-Master v8.00). You can use the output to remove duplicates from your Meal-Master recipe file. You may also flag duplicate recipes in the index [deleted during the next rebuild]. Option 10 - Alphabetize Index This will sort all of the recipes in the currently defined archive file and re-write the index. Makes it much easier to scan your recipes. To save memory, MMMenu only uses a portion of the recipe title when alphabetizing, so sometimes 'close' titles will not be in the correct alphabetical order. Option 11 - Spelling Checker If you have an external spelling checker, and would like to check the spelling of the recipes you convert for import into Meal- Master, you can enter the filename of the spelling checker here. After MMMenu has extracted/converted recipes (option 5) it will run the spelling checker. Option 12 - Conversion 'Leftover' Filename During file conversion/extraction (see option 5) any lines that MMMenu doesn't recognize as being part of a recipe may be saved to an ascii file. This allows you to have easy access to the 'unformatted' recipes that people have entered into their messages. If you would like MMMenu to save these lines to a text file during the conversion/extraction process, enter the filename here. Do NOT enter a file extension (the period and three characters typically at the end of a filename) as MMMenu will number the files sequentially, starting with '.000' and going as high as '.999'. The length of each file is dependant on the value you enter into the next option, 'Max Leftover file length'. If you enter a filename here, then each time you use option 5 to convert your recipes, MMMenu will start a new 'leftover' file. To disable the leftover file, simply enter a space instead of a filename. Option 13 - Maximum Leftover File Length I use a small word processor for most of my editing that has a limit on the file size it can load. By using this function, you can tell MMMenu to start a new leftover file whenever the current one reaches a certain size (I've found that 32K {32768 bytes} works fairly well). Remember that the number you enter here is in BYTES, so if you want a 16K maximum file length, you'd enter 16384. If you only want ONE leftover file to be created for each conversion, then enter a zero. Option 14 - External Editor If you are using 'Leftover' files and you would like the opportunity to edit the leftover file(s) after you convert/extract recipes then enter the name of your external editor here. The editor program must either be in the current directory, or in a directory specified in your 'Path'. After performing the Conversion/Extraction function (see option 5) MMMenu will run the program you specify as your external editor, and will load [if supported by your editor] the lowest, most recent leftover file (if you've let other 'leftover' files remain on your disk, they won't be loaded in the editor). Note that you must have specified that you want to use a leftover file in order to have the editor called. If you are also using the spelling checker, MMMenu will run the editor first, then the spelling checker. Keep in mind that the spelling checker checks the 'destination' file from the file conversion, and that the editor loads the 'leftover' file. As in most other cases, if you want to turn this feature off, just enter a space instead of the editor program name. Option 99 - Print Registration Form If you would like to register this program (NOT Meal-Master; that's a SEPARATE registration) then please select this option, fill out the form that prints on your printer and send it to me with the registration fee. You don't get anything other than peace of mind by registering, but keep in mind that this program DID take a little bit of work! IN CONCLUSION: ------------- I would like to thank Episoft Systems (Scott Welliver) for writing and supporting Meal-Master. In my opinion, Meal-Master is the best recipe manager available today (no, we're NOT related!). If you use Meal- Master, and have not registered it, I urge you to do so. Mr. Welliver deserves some recompense for the time and effort he has put into Meal- Master. If, for some reason, you feel the need to contact me about MMMenu, please do so either in writing to the address on the registration form, through CompuServe E-Mail [user id: 76166,2542], or through Internet mail [bcj@cyberspace.com]. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks! Brett Jones Delta Services 1405 Belmont Ave. Seattle, Wa 98122 [Meal-Master, Qbook, CompuServe, BlueWave, PKZIP, PKUNZIP, LHARC and ZOO are copyright/registered/trademark to their respective owners]