Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Novel uses for Frontier

Author:Jacob Savin
Posted:9/13/1999; 12:25:55 PM
Topic:Novel uses for Frontier
Msg #:10963
Prev/Next:10962 / 10964

Well, I guess I'll just jump in here and break the silence a bit...

I'm curious if there are other people out there who have found non-internet uses for Frontier, and what they are.

I got into Frontier just about when the html rendering stuff was begining to happen. I found it at random by doing a search on some website or another, I don't remember which, because I was looking for a way to make my computer check my email in the middle of the night when the phones were cheaper. (I was living in Amsterdam, and working with a band, and I was making very little money, so this was important.)

Anyway, AppleScript English looked like Greek to me ;-> and UserTalk was much like Pascal or AmigaBasic (also much like Pascal), which made much more sense to me, and it knew how to talk to all the apps I wanted to talk to.

Nowadays, I use the free version of Frontier at my office to drive all our software builds, on both Mac and Windows. It's got a web-based interface available on our intranet, and it sends email notifications when it works, and error messages when it doesn't.

I've used it to send emails to developers when a bug has been regressed, closed, opened, or updated. People can basically subscribe to this service, which talks to our bug database in FileMaker.

I use it to drive our applications to do repetitive types of matrix testing. It parses reports, and generates scripts to drive our MPEG encoder app.

My boss loves what I've done with Fronteir so much that when they put an ad for a position in QA up on our website, Frontier was one of the items listed under skills and experience. My Sonic coffee mug reads "Script-Ninja".

BTW, (heads up Userland) the QA manager here was interested in training or classes in Frontier. As far as I know there is no such class or seminar. There's an opportunity for Userland (or others?) to make some $$$ here. It's interesting to consider having classes and certification for Frontier. It gives credibility to both Userland, and the people who use Frontier in professional/corporate environments. Userland could probably charge at least $2,500 for five days of training, which should be more than enough to pay a new hire to do it...

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