Welcome to Frontier 5.0a1!

We've done 19 releases to a small group of people, their names are listed on the Thanks! page. Now we want to expand the user base of Frontier 5. Instead of about a dozen reviewers, we want several hundred people to start working in the new 5.0 environment.

Who this release is for

Let's divide the world into three groups:

1. People who have never used Frontier;

2. Frontier enthusiasts who want to be part of the process of shaking out problems in the new version, and want to influence the direction of the product;

3. People who are using Frontier but want a smoother ride, and are willing to let other people drive the finishing process.

This release is for people in category #2.

Goals of the release

There were several goals for Frontier 5:

1. Focus the product on web content development.

2. Deliver the power of Frontier to a larger audience thru increased ease-of-use and thru the port to Windows.

3. Clean up the Frontier object database, reflecting what we've learned about its usage.

4. Deepen the power of the object database.

5. Define a base of free software, and a commercial base.

6. Document the software fully in print.

We're not done yet

Frontier 5.0a1 is very much an alpha release. It will crash and behave unexpectedly. The docs are sparse. There are braincell burners. You will lose data, so plan accordingly.

I am using this software to manage the www.scripting.com website, so it is usable, and for many people, it's worth it to get in the loop now.

From this point

Since all of the Frontier 4 users are Mac users, and since our Mac code base is more mature, we decided to release the Mac version first.

Doug Baron is focused on getting the main glitches out of the Mac software. There will be several releases over the next few weeks. Once the Mac version is stabilized, Doug will work on bringing the Windows version to the same level of stability.

Bob Bierman is working on the Windows version. It's building websites. We don't know when the Windows version will release, but it isn't that far behind the Mac version, and many of the bugs we've been fixing have been cross-platform bugs. When you help us debug the Mac version, you are helping us get the cross-platform version debugged too.

Mailing list

Please don't address email to individuals. Use the Frontier-work mailing list for discussion and use the bug database to report bugs.

Where to go

1. The Download page.

2. The Mail page.

3. Quick Start for Experienced Scripters.

Dave Winer
Sat, Sep 27, 1997 at 10:23:11 AM