Editing UserLand Software (section)

==Frontier==
UserLand's first product release of April 1989 was UserLand IPC, a developer tool for [[interprocess communication]] that was intended to evolve into a cross-platform [[Remote procedure call|RPC]] tool.<ref>{{Cite news| volume = 89| issue = 4| pages = 4 ‒ 6| last = Dyson| first = Esther| title = Userland: Plumbing for the Mac| work = Release 1.0| date = April 1989}}</ref> In January 1992 UserLand released version 1.0 of Frontier,<ref>{{Cite news| page = 20| title = Userland launches Frontier scripting tool for Macintosh| work = InfoWorld| date = January 20, 1992}}</ref> a scripting environment for the [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] which included an object database and a scripting language named ''UserTalk''.<ref name=miller>{{cite news |work=InfoWorld| title=Frontier lets Mac users build scripts across applications|first=Michael J.|last=Miller|date=May 13, 1992|access-date=February 23, 2012|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/4506841410/sizes/l/in/photostream/}}</ref><ref name=macuser-swaine>{{cite news |work=MacUser| title=Frontier:UserLand's scripting tool lets you write your own utilities for automating your desktop|first=Michael|last=Swaine|author-link=Michael Swaine (technical author)|date=September 1992|access-date=February 23, 2012|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/4506175795/sizes/l/in/photostream/}}</ref> At the time of its original release, Frontier was the only system-level scripting environment for the Macintosh,<ref name="neuburg" /> but [[Apple Inc|Apple]] was working on its own [[scripting language]], [[AppleScript]],<ref>{{Cite news | last = Zachary | first = G. Pascal | title = Apple enlists small company for software | work = Wall Street Journal | location = New York | date = 1992-05-01|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/sets/72157623810854912/ }}</ref> and started bundling it with the System 7 system software. As a consequence, most Macintosh scripting work came to be done in the less powerful, but free, scripting language provided by Apple.<ref>{{Cite news| last = Hill| first = Brian| title = UserLand's power trio makes net.waves| work = Slack Magazine| access-date =February 3, 2011| year = 1996| url = http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~lorax/old-slack/feedingthegeeks.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19970512004345/http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~lorax/old-slack/feedingthegeeks.html |archive-date = May 12, 1997}}</ref>

UserLand responded to Applescript by re-positioning Frontier as a Web development environment,<ref>{{cite web| last = Winer| first = Dave| title = The Story of Frontier| work = Userland| access-date =August 8, 2008| year = 1997| url = http://davewiner.userland.com/historyOfFrontier}}</ref> distributing the software free of charge with the "Aretha" release of May 1995.<ref>{{cite web| last = Winer| first = Dave| title = Being Free| work = DaveNet| access-date =August 9, 2008| date = May 9, 1995| url = http://www.scripting.com/davenet/1995/05/09/beingfree.html}}</ref> In late 1996, Frontier 4.1 had become "an integrated development environment that lends itself to the creation and maintenance of Web sites and management of Web pages sans much busywork,"<ref>{{Cite news| last = Crabb| first = Don| title = Webmasters get welcome relief with Frontier 4.1.| work = MacWEEK| date = November 18, 1996}}</ref> and by the time Frontier 4.2 was released in January 1997, the software was firmly established in the realms of website management and [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]] scripting,<ref name="neuburg">{{Cite book| publisher = [[O'Reilly Media|O'Reilly]]| last = Neuburg| first = Matt| title = Frontier: The Definitive Guide| access-date = January 31, 2011| date = January 1998| url = http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mattneub/frontierDef/ch00.html| archive-date = April 20, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100420102542/http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mattneub/frontierDef/ch00.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> allowing users to "taste the power of large-scale database publishing with free software."<ref>{{cite web |last=Veen |first=Jeffrey |title=Object-Oriented Publishing on the Web |work=Webmonkey |date=November 24, 1997 |url=http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/templates/print_template.htmlt?meta=/webmonkey/97/47/index0a_meta.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990828211300/http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey/templates/print_template.htmlt?meta=%2Fwebmonkey%2F97%2F47%2Findex0a_meta.html |archive-date=August 28, 1999 |access-date=April 9, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Frontier's NewsPage suite came to play a pivotal role in the emergence of [[blogging]] through its adoption by [[Jorn Barger]],<ref>{{Cite book| edition = eBook| publisher = Crown| isbn = 978-0-307-45138-5| page = 75| last = Rosenberg| first = Scott| title = Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters| chapter = They shall know you through your links: Jorn Barger, filters| location = New York| date = June 16, 2009}}</ref> [[Chris Gulker]], and others in the 1997–98 period.<ref>{{Cite conference| publisher = ACM| doi = 10.1145/1557914.1557962| isbn = 978-1-60558-486-7| pages = 279–288| last = Ammann| first = Rudolf| title = Jorn Barger, the NewsPage network and the emergence of the weblog community| book-title = Proceedings of the 20th ACM conference on hypertext and hypermedia| location = Torino, Italy| access-date =July 15, 2009| year = 2009| url = http://tawawa.org/ark/p/jorn-barger-community.html}}</ref>

UserLand launched a [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] version of Frontier 5.0 in January 1998<ref>{{cite web| last = Userland| title = Frontier 5.0 is shipping!| work = Frontier News| access-date =August 8, 2008| date = January 30, 1998| url = http://frontier.userland.com/news/1998/01/30}}</ref> and began charging for licenses again with the 5.1 release of June 1998.<ref>{{cite web| last = Walsh| first = Jeff| title = UserLand releases Frontier 5.1, drops freeware model | work = InfoWorld| access-date =August 9, 2008| date = June 29, 1998| url = http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980629.wifrontier.htm |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/19990915175718/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980629.wifrontier.htm |archive-date = September 15, 1999}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| last = Morgenstern| first = David| work=MacWeek| title = Frontier blazing Internet trail| access-date =May 29, 2010| date = June 26, 1998| url = http://macweek.zdnet.com/1224-0627/nw_frontier.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000618090720/http://macweek.zdnet.com/1224-0627/nw_frontier.html| archive-date = June 18, 2000}}</ref>

Frontier subsequently became the [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]] for two of UserLand's products, Manila and Radio UserLand, as well as [[Dave Winer]]'s [[OPML]] Editor, all of which support the UserTalk scripting language.

UserLand eventually placed Frontier under the [[Open-source license|open source]] [[GNU General Public License]] with the 10.0a1 release of September 28, 2004.<ref>{{cite web| last = Winer| first = Dave| title = Introducing Frontier 10.0a1| url = http://kernel.scripting.com/2004/09/28 | work = Kernel Scripting| date = September 28, 2004|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041009163113/http://kernel.scripting.com/2004/09/28 |archive-date = October 9, 2004}}</ref> Frontier is now maintained by the Frontier Kernel Project.