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RecipeML -- yuck!

Posted August 3rd, 2007 by mattm
in

One of my hobbies is cooking, and very often I just go freestyle in the kitchen. Often, I forget to write down what I put in to a dish...and its lost forever.

I'm a techie by trade, and have this desire to build little software systems to support my hobbies, so this morning I started wondering about creating a simple markup language for recipes. Google was my first stop, and it found RecipeML™ for me.

I'm not happy with RecipeML for a couple of reasons. First off, they require that applications developers "ask permission" to use RecipeML, and secondly...the syntax/vocabulary itself is inconsistent. e.g.


<ingredients>
  <ing/>
</ingredients>

Sooo...I think I shall design my own markup. And it will be free for all to use. No trademark, no "permission"...and hopefully a consistent markup for the XML freaks among us.
Here is the first pass:

http://mattmackenzie.com/files/recipe.dtd

my own recipe schema

Submitted by Greg Pfeil (not verified) on Sun, 09/02/2007 - 14:10.

I did this one back when we were all working together in Van. Not sure if it meets your needs, but maybe it can help a bit: http://technomadic.org/greg/Projects/schemas/recipe/

Very nice

Submitted by Mike (not verified) on Sun, 11/11/2007 - 07:50.

I was looking for a standardized format and naturally thought of XML. I had the exact same reaction to RecipeML that you did - nice job with the definition. A couple of small notes, first the year attribute is defined twice.

The title attribute of an ingredient raises a question. Are you expecting ingredient elements to specify the ingredient name in their PCDATA area? If so, why is title required? If not, why have a PCDATA area?

Also, an optional "brand" attribute would be helpful (i.e.
<ingredient quantity="12" measure="oz" brand="Campbell's" title="Cream of Mushroom Soup" />)

Mike - you bring up some

Submitted by mattm on Sun, 12/09/2007 - 22:14.

Mike - you bring up some excellent points. I will tighten up the DTD and repost it soon-ish. Its great to hear others think RecipeML is bogus!

Good idea!

Submitted by Kretch (not verified) on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 22:45.

I really like your idea of an open-source XML format for recipes. Some comments/wishlist-items I had:
*) Recipes are often hierarchical (i.e. Béchamel sauce is needed for Lasagna),the DTD should reflect that.
*) How about the preparation steps? Why not use XSLT as a way to describe "Transforming" the ingredients?

Great

Submitted by tanner (not verified) on Sun, 03/16/2008 - 20:44.

I also found RecipeML to be very lacking and was disappointed with the "asking permission". I am trying to make some software to manage my cooking as well, and this looks much better than what I have seen. Thanks for the good work.