reid@Glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (10/15/85)
The net cookbook is a great idea. Here is how I propose to do it:
(1) Cause net.cooks.cookbook to be created. You'll shortly see why
it is needed. I will start the crank turning in net.news.group
after I see what people think of this idea.
(2) Have some troff expert prepare a "skeleton" troff file that will
work with both troff and nroff. This troff file will be the
prototype for recipes; it will have an ingredient list, some
numbered paragraphs of text, and examples of simple troff hackery.
(I prefer to use a formatter that I think is much better than troff,
but it would be foolish to use anything except troff/nroff on a Unix
network cookbook). Oh, yes, the troff skeleton should also include
an example of how to format one's signature file or attribution,
and people should be encouraged to put this at the end of each
recipe. [Note to the experts: it has been my experience that the
only troff/nroff macros that truly work everywhere are the -man
macros, so let's try to base this on -man rather than -mm or -me
or -ms or something else. Besides: that will enable sites whose
administrators have a sense of humor to permit "man cheesecake"]
(3) Post the skeleton troff file to net.cooks at regular intervals; perhaps
every month or so (use the same Subject every time so that people can
skip over it if they have it already).
(4) Encourage people to start posting recipes to net.cooks.cookbook, using
this troff/nroff skeleton file as an example. The "Subject" line of
each recipe will be the title of the recipe.
(5) [Here is my contribution]. I'm a pretty good awk/sed/shell hacker. I
will write a shell script that, when run, goes out to the
net.cooks.cookbook directory, takes all the articles that it finds
there, strips the headers off them, and makes a single troff document
out of them. With different options, it will make a refer(1) file,
a troff file, or (by running itself through nroff) a text file. It
will also make an index of authors, of titles, and ingredients.
This will work if and only if people follow the rules and use the
standardized troff skeleton to format their recipes.
As this gets cranking to steady-state, the net.cooks.cookbook directory will
contain about a month's worth of recipes (depending on how people run expire
at their sites). Some sites will choose to run archives, some will not.
Unless somebody gets to it before I do, I will also post some (extremely
simple) software that lets people make their own individual or site-specific
archive that is outside of the domain of netnews and therefore not subject
to being expired.
Once this gets going, I will propose a mechanism for reviewing recipes, so
that the reviews can be included with the recipes in the formatted version
of the cookbook. Naturally this will all be automatic. My current thinking
is that the right way to review a recipe is to post a note to net.cooks
(not net.cooks.cookbook) whose subject is "REVIEW: " followed by the title
of the recipe. Since these reviews sometimes get unnecessarily vitriolic
(e.g. the key lime pie reviews), the software that assembles a cookbook out
of the current state of the database should certainly have options enabling
it to be run with or without the reviews.
SO: let's have people who consider themselves troff/nroff experts post some
sample skeletons of sample formats. We can collectively discuss these
samples, evaluating them according to (a) whether they include the right
information (b) whether they include it in a way that will make automatic
parsing (for the index and table of contents) easy, (c) whether they look
good when formatted on a typesetter, (d) whether they look ok when formatted
online with nroff, etc. After seeing and trying a few of the formats, I
expect we will reach some kind of a consensus. We'll need to appoint one
person to make the final decision of which skeleton to use, and then after
that we won't need any kind of centralization or authority.
--
Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid
Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPAturner@saber.UUCP (D'arc Angel) (10/16/85)
> > The net cookbook is a great idea. Here is how I propose to do it: > > -- > Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid > Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** excellant idea, i will be glad (company allowing) to make a LIMITED edition of the cookbook on our laser printer which could be passed around and copied (a la chain mail) for those who want high quality copies. -- god bless Lily St. Cyr -Rocky Horror Picture Show Name: James Turner Mail: Imagen Corp. 2650 San Tomas Expressway, P.O. Box 58101 Santa Clara, CA 95052-9400 AT&T: (408) 986-9400 UUCP: ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!imagen!negami!turner
nemo@rochester.UUCP (Wolfe) (10/17/85)
> The net cookbook is a great idea. Here is how I propose to do it: > (1) Cause net.cooks.cookbook to be created. > (2) Have some troff expert prepare a "skeleton" troff file that will > work with both troff and nroff. > ...Let's try to base this on -man rather than -mm or -me > or -ms or something else. Besides: that will enable sites whose > administrators have a sense of humor to permit "man cheesecake" > (3) Post the skeleton troff file to net.cooks at regular intervals > (4) Encourage people to start posting recipes to net.cooks.cookbook, using > this troff/nroff skeleton file as an example. The "Subject" line of > each recipe will be the title of the recipe. > (5) ...Write a shell script that, when run, goes out to the > net.cooks.cookbook directory, takes all the articles that it finds > there, strips the headers off them, and makes a single troff document > out of them. > > Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Here, here! -- Internet: nemo@rochester.arpa UUCP: {decvax, allegra, seismo, cmcl2}!rochester!nemo Phone: [USA] (716) 275-5766 school 232-4690 home USMail: 104 Tremont Circle; Rochester, NY 14608 School: Department of Computer Science; University of Rochester; Rochester, NY 14627
billr@tekred.UUCP (Bill Randle) (10/18/85)
As a start on the macros, here's a set of macros that were posted
to the net a long time ago. It may be a useful starting place for
somewon interested in fine tuning them. (This uses the mm macro
package, I believe.)
-Bill Randle
Tektronix, Inc.
tektronix!tekred!billr (uucp)
tekred!billr@tektronix.csnet (CSnet)
tekred!billr%tektronix@csnet-relay.ARPA (ARPA)
------------
.\" These macros are used to build RECIPES.
.\"
.\" Macro ST takes as argument a section title and skips to a new page
.\" for that section.
.\"
.de ST
.\" .1C
.SK
.sp 8
.nr Hu 1
.nr Hc 1
.ps 18
.HU "\\$1"
.ps 10
.sp 3
.\" .2C
..
.\"
.\" Macro RT takes as its single argument the title of a recipe
.\" enclosed in double quote marks ("). This macro should always
.\" be invoked at the beginning of a recipe.
.\"
.de RT
.ne 8
.nr Hu 1
.nr Hc 1
.sp 1
.ps 14
.HU "\\$1"
.ps 10
..
.\"
.\" Macro IB should always be used to begin a list of ingredients.
.\" There may be more than one such list in a recipe.
.\" The optional argument gives a subhead for the list of ingredients,
.\" for example Ingredients For Gravy.
.\"
.de IB
.ne 4
.nr Hu 2
.HU "Ingredients \\$1"
.VL 12 "" 1
..
.\"
.\" Macro IE should always be used to end a list of ingredients.
.\"
.de IE
.LE 1
..
.\"
.\" Macro IN takes as arguments a quantity of some ingredient,
.\" a measure for the ingredient (e.g., tsp, Tbl, cup), and
.\" a description of the ingredient. If any of the arguments includes
.\" a space, the argument should appear in quotes.
.\"
.de IN
.LI "\\$1 \\$2"
\\$3
..
.\" Macro CM should be used to begin a section of cooking
.\" instructions. There may be more than one such section.
.\"
.de CM
.ne 4
.nr Hu 2
.HU "Method"
..
.\"
.\" Macro RN should be used to begin a section of notes on
.\" the recipe (e.g., serving suggestions, wine notes).
.\" There may be more than one such section.
.\"
.de RN
.ne 3
.nr Hu 2
.HU "Notes"
..
.\"
.\" Global settings
.\"
.PH
.PF "''-\\\\nP-''"
.\"---------end of macros-----------johnw@astroatc.UUCP (10/23/85)
>Someone propsese a net.cooks.cookbook,
I say:
Yes, Yes, Yes!!! I like!!! Lets do it!!!
Two minor additions: how about net.cooks.reviews
Personally, I alwyas thought that cook-books should be
on-line on a computer. You would have a list of stuff
you *ALWYAS* have, then say "make_shop_list recipl_list"
and stuff like that. You need a kitchen computer
with touch screen and membrane keyboard so you can use
it to keep track of what you did and what needs to be done.
It should also turn on and off you oven, and act as a timer...
The possibilities are endless.
John W
--
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{...siesmo,allegra,ihnp4...} !uwvax!astroatc!johnw
To err is human, to really foul up world news requires the net!