Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!recipes From: reid@decwrl (Brian Reid) Newsgroups: mod.recipes Subject: What is mod.recipes? (last updated 27 June 86) Message-ID: <6630@decwrl.DEC.COM> Date: Fri, 28-Nov-86 04:08:58 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.6630 Posted: Fri Nov 28 04:08:58 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Nov-86 19:39:14 EST Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM Organization: DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 58 Keywords: automatic monthly posting 1 of 8 Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP Welcome to mod.recipes. This is a "moderated" USENET group, whose purpose is to distribute the recipes of the USENET Cookbook. People read through these recipes, save the ones they like and ignore the ones that they don't like, and then periodically print out a personalized copy of "The USENET Cookbook". Everything posted to mod.recipes is put there by the newsgroup moderator, namely me. I am Brian Reid of DEC Western Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. The moderator of a newsgroup is something like the editor of a magazine--I don't write much for it, but I must approve everything that goes out, and I edit the contributions for spelling, grammar, and stylistic consistency. Sometimes I add some historical information, or some commentary on the recipe. The mod.recipes system is almost completely automated. People submit recipes by mailing them to a certain mailbox. I proofread each recipe and check the dubious-looking ones to make sure that they are reasonable. I add a "rating" of each recipe according to how easy or hard it is to make, and how long it will take. If the recipe was submitted in imperial units (cups and teaspoons), I add metric equivalents (grams and milliliters); if the recipe was submitted in metric units, then I add the imperial equivalents. I also add a copyright notice, copyrighting each recipe for the "USENET Community Trust", which is a California organization formed for the purpose of holding that copyright. When a recipe has been edited, formatted, converted to metric, proofread, and marked with copyright, then it is placed in the outgoing queue. Once a week, an automatic program is run that takes the first 5 recipes from the queue and sends them out to the network. The rate at which recipes go out is fixed, regardless of the rate at which recipes come in, though if the recipe arrival rate increases, I will increase the outgoing flow rate somewhat. I don't have time to proofread more than about 6 to 8 recipes a week, so that will be the absolute limit. At the moment we are in a good equilibrium with 5 recipes a week, and there is about a 4-week backlog. That means that I can be gone for 4 weeks and everything will run perfectly in my absence and you will never even know that I was gone. As you can see by looking at them, these recipes are encoded in a text formatting system, and are not ready to print as they stand. The advantage of this is that they can be formatted for a typesetter or laser printer as well as an ordinary printer, so that you can use the best printing device available to print your cookbook. I have written a set of programs, collectively called "the mod.recipes software", that must be installed somewhere on your machine before you can effectively use these recipes. In messages that immediately follow this one, I will post the software sources, the documentation for how to use it, and the instructions for posting your own recipes. (Because of its size, the automatic software distribution is limited to North America. You should be able to locate a copy of the software somewhere on your continent by posting a request to an appropriate local newsgroup.) Brian Reid {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!decwrl!reid or reid@decwrl.dec.com DEC Western Research Laboratory