UserLand Software#Frontier

Dave Winer founded the company in 1988 after leaving Symantec in the spring of 1988. Jean-Louis Gassée, who resigned in 1990 as chief of Apple's product development, came to serve on UserLand's board of directors.{{Cite news| edition = Final| page = C3| last = Siegman| first = Ken|author2=Don Clark | title = MacWorld Expo ‒ New Products, Heavy Traffic| work = The San Francisco Chronicle| location = San Francisco| date = January 10, 1991}}

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 RPC tool.{{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}} In January 1992 UserLand released version 1.0 of Frontier,{{Cite news| page = 20| title = Userland launches Frontier scripting tool for Macintosh| work = InfoWorld| date = January 20, 1992}} a scripting environment for the Macintosh which included an object database and a scripting language named UserTalk.{{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/}}{{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/}} At the time of its original release, Frontier was the only system-level scripting environment for the Macintosh, but Apple was working on its own scripting language, AppleScript,{{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/ }} 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.{{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}}

UserLand responded to Applescript by re-positioning Frontier as a Web development environment,{{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}} distributing the software free of charge with the "Aretha" release of May 1995.{{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}} 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,"{{Cite news| last = Crabb| first = Don| title = Webmasters get welcome relief with Frontier 4.1.| work = MacWEEK| date = November 18, 1996}} and by the time Frontier 4.2 was released in January 1997, the software was firmly established in the realms of website management and CGI scripting,{{Cite book| publisher = 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}} allowing users to "taste the power of large-scale database publishing with free software."{{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 }}

Frontier's NewsPage suite came to play a pivotal role in the emergence of blogging through its adoption by Jorn Barger,{{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}} Chris Gulker, and others in the 1997–98 period.{{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}}

UserLand launched a Windows version of Frontier 5.0 in January 1998{{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}} and began charging for licenses again with the 5.1 release of June 1998.{{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}}{{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}}

Frontier subsequently became the 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 GNU General Public License with the 10.0a1 release of September 28, 2004.{{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}} Frontier is now maintained by the Frontier Kernel Project.

Userland developed two pioneering Web building applications, AutoWeb in early 1995 and Clay Basket later that year.{{cite web

| last = Duncan

| first = Geoff

| title = Frontier Justice

| work = TidBits

| access-date =May 6, 2009

| date = May 29, 1995

| url = http://db.tidbits.com/article/01471

}}{{cite web

| last = Engst

| first = Adam C.

| title = More Bookmarks than Books, Part III

| work = TidBits

| access-date =May 6, 2009

| date = April 29, 1996

| url = http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-326.html#lnk5

}} Both applications went through a free public beta period, yet neither was ever released in a 1.0 version. In 1996 Clay Basket was abandoned in favor of improved Web publishing functionality built into Frontier.{{cite web

| last = Winer

| first = Dave

| title = The Art of Moving Forward

| work = DaveNet

| access-date =May 6, 2009

| date = December 31, 1996

| url = http://www.scripting.com/davenet/1996/12/31/TheArtofMovingForward.html

}}

Launched as part of Frontier 6.1 in November 1999, Manila is a content management system that allows the hosting of web sites and their editing through a browser.{{cite web| last = Winer| first = Dave| title = Frontier 6.1 has been released!| work = Userland Frontier| access-date =March 7, 2009| date = November 29, 1999| url = http://frontier.userland.com/news/default$1999/11}}{{cite news|first=Wendy J.|last=Mattson|title=UserLand unfolds Manila| work=MacWeek|date=December 3, 1999| access-date=January 24, 2011 |url=http://macweek.zdnet.com/1999/11/28/userland.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000302031219/http://macweek.zdnet.com/1999/11/28/userland.html |archive-date = March 2, 2000}} Within days of releasing Manila, UserLand set up a free Manila hosting service, EditThisPage.com, which quickly became a popular weblogging service.{{cite web| last = Winer| first = Dave| title = EditThisPage.Com| work = DaveNet| access-date =March 7, 2009| date = December 8, 1999| url = http://www.scripting.com/davenet/1999/12/08/editthispagecom.html}}

{{main|Radio UserLand}}

Radio UserLand is a client-side weblog system that hosts blogs on UserLand's servers for an annual software license fee. The software includes an RSS aggregator and was one of the first applications to both send and receive audio files as RSS enclosures (see podcasting). UserLand was an early adopter of the RSS syndication method, merging Winer's Scripting News XML format with Netscape's RSS.

First released as a public beta under the name Pike in March 2000,{{cite web

| last = Winer

| first = Dave

| title = What is Pike?

| access-date =November 3, 2008

| date = March 25, 2000

| url = http://pikebeta.userland.com/whatIsThis

}} the software came to be released in synch with Manila version numbering: the initial release of 2001 was named Radio UserLand 7.0{{cite web

| last = Userland

| title = Radio Userland is shipping!

| work = Frontier News

| access-date =March 7, 2009

| date = March 9, 2001

| url = http://frontier.userland.com/news/2001/03/09

}} and its only major upgrade in 2002 Radio UserLand 8.0.{{cite web|last=Winer |first=Dave |title=Estimated time of arrival: 6:30PM Pacific |work=Scripting News |access-date=March 7, 2009 |date=January 11, 2002 |url=http://archive.scripting.com/2002/01/11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206172215/http://archive.scripting.com/2002/01/11 |archive-date=February 6, 2009 }} The software is no longer considered to be under active development.{{cite web

| last = Winer

| first = Dave

| title = Twitter as coral reef

| work = Scripting News

| access-date =March 7, 2009

| date = April 28, 2007

| url = http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/04/28/twitterAsCoralReef.html

}}

UserLand counts among the earliest adopters of XML, with first experiments made in late 1997.{{cite web

| last = Winer

| first = Dave

| title = Scripting News in XML

| work = DaveNet

| access-date =March 7, 2009

| date = December 15, 1997

| url = http://www.scripting.com/davenet/1997/12/15/scriptingNewsInXML.html

}} The company was involved in the development, specification and implementation of several XML formats and was noted for its commitment to openness.{{Cite news

| last = Dumbill

| first = Edd

| title = XML Inter-Application Protocols

| work = XML.com

| access-date =June 3, 2009

| date = October 13, 1999

| url = http://www.xml.com/pub/a/1999/10/open/index.html?wwwrrr_rss

}}

{{main|XML-RPC}}

Created in 1998 by UserLand Software and Microsoft,{{cite web

|last = Box

|first = Don

|title = A Brief History of SOAP

|publisher = O'Reilly

|date = April 1, 2001

|url = http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2001/04/04/soap.html

|access-date = October 9, 2008

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080915090248/http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2001/04/04/soap.html

|archive-date = September 15, 2008

|url-status = dead

|df = mdy-all

}} XML-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol that uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.{{cite book|author1=Simon St. Laurent|author2=Joe Johnston|author3=Edd Dumbill|title=Programming Web Services With Xml-Rpc|url=https://archive.org/details/programmingwebse00stla|url-access=registration|access-date=11 June 2012|year=2001|publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc.|isbn=978-0-596-00119-3}}

UserLand first included a stable XML-RPC framework with its 5.1.3 release of Frontier in August 1998{{cite web

| last = Userland

| title = Frontier 5.1.3 Change Notes

| work = Userland Frontier

| access-date =March 13, 2009

| date = August 16, 1998

| url = http://frontier.userland.com/changes/513

}} and subsequently made extensive use of XML-RPC in its Frontier-based products, Manila and Radio UserLand. XML-RPC is also used in the MetaWeblog API.

{{main|SOAP}}

SOAP evolved from XML-RPC and was designed as an object-access protocol by Dave Winer, Don Box, Bob Atkinson, and Mohsen Al-Ghosein in 1998, with backing from Microsoft, where Atkinson and Al-Ghosein worked at the time.

SOAP 1.1 was submitted to the W3C by Microsoft, IBM, and UserLand, amongst others, on May 9, 2000.{{cite web

| last = Userland

| title = UserLand Submits SOAP 1.1 to World Wide Web Consortium

| work = Userland

| access-date =March 7, 2009

| date = May 9, 2000

| url = http://www.userland.com/stories/storyReader$66

}} Version 1.2 of the proposed standard[http://www.w3.org/TR/soap12-part1/#intro SOAP Version 1.2 specification] became a W3C recommendation on June 24, 2003.

{{main|RSS}}

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.{{cite web

| url= http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-spec-0.91.html

| title=RSS 0.91 Spec, revision 3 | author=Libby, Dan

| date=July 10, 1999 |publisher=Netscape Communications

| access-date=February 14, 2007

| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20001204093600/http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-spec-0.91.html

| archive-date= December 4, 2000 }} An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",

"Web feeds | RSS | The Guardian | guardian.co.uk",

The Guardian, London, 2008, webpage:

[https://www.theguardian.com/webfeeds GuardianUK-webfeeds].

or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

Between 1999 and 2003, UserLand contributed various versions of the RSS specification. For an overview of the process see the History of web syndication technology.

Using RSS, UserLand also ran one of the first Web aggregators, My.UserLand.Com, which allowed users to follow numerous weblogs from a single web page.

Userland's RSS advocacy led them to develop RSS feeds for the New York Times company.[http://backend.userland.com/2003/06/16 Accessing the NY Times archive through their RSS feeds – Backend.Userland.Com] The original feeds used a variation on standard RSS, and the feeds were only publicized to UserLand Radio bloggers.

{{main|OPML}}

Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) is an XML format for outlines. Originally developed in 2000 as a native file format for Radio UserLand's outliner application, it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of web feeds between web feed aggregators.

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.userland.com/ Official website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Userland Software}}

Category:Software companies established in 1988

Category:Software companies based in California

Category:Software companies of the United States