[mythtv] RE: mythrecipe

[Chad Schaaf]

> On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 14:52:03 -0800, Chris Petersen
> <lists at forevermore.net> wrote:
> > I refuse to add "no/low carb" type stuff, though.  I won't give into the
> > unhealthy obsession people have with overconsuming protein and cutting
> > vegetables out of their diets.
> Hehe... yeah, I almost wrote something similar to this but decided not
> to lest I offend someone. I read an interesting article that suggested
> the initial weight loss on no/low carb diets is mostly water loss
> which is definately *not* health. I've always said you need to have a
> balance. Not too much or too little of anything. However I guess this
> is getting a little off topic...
>
> > the author assigns keywords to each recipe, and each category has
> > keywords assigned by the category maintainer -- both of them independent
> > of any name/description fields.  So for a recipe like "bread pudding"
> > the maintainer would add keywords like "british pudding dessert" which
> > would then be filed in any category with matching keywords.
> Ok, this makes a bit more sense now. I was trying to figure out how
> you would parse a recipe to get categories. However to me it seems
> like you are just implementing categories in a different way.
>
> > But non-italian noodle dishes are not usually called pasta.  and the
> > "italian" keyword would not be added, so it wouldn't show up in the
> > category marked "italian"
> Actually there is this one "thai" dish (ok, it's more of a thai style
> dish) that uses regular spagetti noodles. But of course if we aren't
> parsing the recipe for keywords and instead adding them to each recipe
> then it's a non-issue.
>
> > yes.  but consider that most people will be searching, not browsing (or
> > should be).  Even if a recipe isn't attached to a category, it will be
> > searchable.
> >
> > But you are right, it's sort of a double-edged battle.  my method is
> > search-centric, not category-centric.  The categories are just a way to
> > organize searches.  But that's how I cook.  I go to a recipe book with
> > some idea of what I want, and immediately turn to the index.
> Ok, I do like your idea from a search point of view but there are
> times when I don't quite know what I want to make and browsing would
> be the way to go for me. But then there are other times where I know
> exactly what I want but maybe I can't remember the name so your
> keyword search idea would be more ideal in the second case. I don't
> want to add too much complexity but how about both? That way you could
> browse by category or search by keyword. (Either a menu/category style
> search or a text based search)
>
> > A cool method would be to let users pick the category in plain english,
> > and have the system spellcheck and sound-check and figure out where best
> > to place it, creating new categories as it needs to, but that's more
> > work than I want to spend on this.
> That sounds like a good idea for an eventual upgrade.
>
> > I really want to change the way that people access data, and side with
> > google on the idea that searching is key.  Categorization is good, but
> > I've never seen a GOOD way to adminster a category tree -- nor is it the
> > primary way that people look for information.  There must be a happy
> > balance in there somewhere.
> I like your idea of a keyword search but I still don't think I want to
> let go of a structured category list. Maybe both is the way to go?
> -Chris
>
> --
> You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi
>
I like the idea of keyword searches and I also like the idea of categories.
Is there any way that we could implement both ideas and give the users the
ability to "search" by either method?  I know from a personal standpoint,
that
sometimes I know what category of food I want but may not want to search by
keyword
becuase I may get unwanted results.  Just my two cents.

I am glad to see that there are people out there that are interested in
this.  I can only
hope that when this is started, I can get my wife off from my back! :-)  She
has
been bugging me about a recipe database for almost a year now.

It seems that we might have a database structure almost laid out and I agree
with someone
earlier that said we might want to build the web interface first because of
speed.  I would
like to let everyone know that I can assist in this area of development as I
do PHP coding
for a living.  I will give one exception..... I am not a graphics design
person!!  I can
code around someone else's site design to integrate the database to the
design but not
good at graphics design.   That said, let me know where I can help!!

Thanks,
-Chad