BY ANTHONY WATSON

Your favorite recipes can be entered easily in this simple cookbook - a specialized database that stores and prints your favorite recipes for you. This BASIC program works on all 8-bit Atari computers with 48K and Epson-compatible printer

I wrote the Antic Cookbook because my family and I continually collect new recipes. We collect cookbooks, tear pages out of magazines, cut recipes out of the newspaper, and if all else fails we scribble the recipe down on the nearest piece of paper. When the time came to find a certain recipe we would have to search through the cookbooks or sort through the pile of clippings. Often recipes got lost, or didn't seem worth the effort needed to find them.

So, I wrote the Antic Cookbook. Now we enter in those favorite recipes and avoid the pile of paper. We still collect cookbooks, hut when we find a recipe we like we enter it into "Our Cookbook." Once a year, we print up a copy of our cookbook, and staple the pages together. When the pages get food splattered on them, it's a simple matter to print up a new cookbook. Our family has been using this program for over three years now, and we find it very useful. Being very simple, it has certain limitations, hut it fills our needs.

Getting Started
Type in Listing 1, COOKBOOK.BAS, check it with TYPO II, and SAVE a copy to disk before you RUN it. Because the Antic Cookbook saves each recipe to disk as you go, and continually updates its index file, you should use a disk with plenty of room on it, preferably a freshly-formatted disk with Atari DOS 2.0 or 2.5 on it.

When you first RUN the program it searches for the recipe index on the disk. If it cannot locate an index it will tell you to "stand by" while it creates a new one. Once done, the program takes you to the Main Menu.

Filing Recipes
The Main Menu lets you Find, Add or Alter a file (recipe). Of course, before you can find any files, you first need to enter some recipes to find. Press [2] to add a new recipe. First, type in the name of your new recipe, up to 36 characters long, press [RETURN], and the Ingredients screen will appear.

Type in the ingredients carefully, check each line as you complete it, then press [RETURN]. Once you press [RETURN] you can only correct the line by using the [CONTROL]-[ARROW] keys to return to that line and type over the information. Although some of the BASIC editor functions work (using [CONTROL]-[SHIFT]-[INSERT] to add a line, for instance), they can also mess up your files if you're not careful. Be extremely cautious when using any of the [CONTROL] combinations, and avoid adding too much text to any line.

When you've entered all your ingredients, check them carefully, as you will not be able to make any further corrections once you leave this screen! When you are certain the ingredients are correct, press [ESCAPE] to go to the Directions screen. Enter the directions just as you did the ingredients. You can continue past the bottom of the screen, if necessary. When you are done, check over your text, and press [ESCAPE]. The new recipe file will be saved to disk, and the program will then return you to the Main Menu.

Now that you have some recipe files entered, press [1] from the Main Menu to find a specific file.

The program will show you the first 20 recipe files in its index, out of a possible 60. Press the [SPACEBAR]to see the rest of the titles.

If you don't want to view a recipe, press [ESCAPE] to return to the Main Menu. If you do want to see one of the recipes, simply press the number beside it. Then choose whether you want to see the recipe on the screen, or have it printed in 40 columns or 80 columns. The 40-column option should work with most printers. The 80-column routine is configured specifically for the Star NX-I000 printer, but should work with most Epson-compatible printers.

Onscreen, some of the recipes with lengthy instructions may scroll by too fast for you to read. If that happens, use [CONTROL]-[1] to stop and restart the text. Press [RETURN] to go back and forth between the ingredients and the directions. To return to the Main Menu, press [ESCAPE].

Altering Files
From the Main Menu, press [3] to alter a file, then choose which file you want to change. From the new menu that appears, you can rename the recipe you've chosen, replace it with a new recipe, or erase it. If you choose to erase a recipe by mistake, you can retrieve it as long as you do not replace it with a new recipe. Choose Alter File, then specify the blank space, and rename it (any name will do). Your data should still be in place.

Unfortunately, you can't go back and make changes in your recipes once you've entered them. Instead, you'll need to replace the recipe with a new version, retyped from scratch. The program only allows 60 recipes in its index. Even so, I often run out of space before the index is full. I overcome this limitation by using separate disks (each with their own copy of the Cookbook) for different kinds of recipes, like MEALS or DESSERTS.

Unfortunately, you can't use DOS to transfer recipe files from one disk containing the cookbook program to another, because you need to update the index when adding or deleting any recipe files. (You could copy the whole disk and use the Cookbook program to erase any recipes you didn't want, of course.)

Despite its limitations, the Antic Cookbook has served my family well. (It sure beats all those little slips of paper with recipes scribbled on them.) I hope you enjoy the Cookbook as well. Happy Cooking!

Listing on page 99.

Anthony Watson of Vancouver, WA is a 26-year-old Electronic Technician currently working as a house-husband to take care of his newborn daughter