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This section describes the basics of UserTalk, Frontier's native programming language, in which most Frontier scripts are written for performing calculations, for operating on the Frontier database, for driving the Frontier program, and for driving and communicating with other programs.
The full power of Frontier is realized primarily through UserTalk scripts located in the Frontier database. UserTalk is simple but powerful; this section will make you comfortable with its use, regardless of whether you have previously done any programming or scripting.1
Part II is about how to write, debug, and run a UserTalk script, and about the rules of the language: its syntax, its keywords, and the core verbs required in order to drive the most fundamental aspects of the language. It is essential reading for those wishing to write or understand UserTalk.
This section is the only place in the book where UserTalk keywords and datatype coercion verbs are explained. UserTalk operators and punctuation are also further summarized in chapters of their own in Part VII, Reference . The rest of the UserTalk verbs appear, categorized by subject, in subsequent parts of the book, with technical details reserved for Part VII.
1. The UserTalk language may be characterized on the surface as C-like, and its simplicity and orthogonality is said to put it squarely in the ALGOL family. On the other hand, Frontier has some distinctly Lisp-like features, such as its use of local handlers and its scoping and typing rules; ultimately, there are enough significant differences of detail between UserTalk and C that the comparison is unhelpful. Rather than present a cumbersome conspectus of the similarities and differences between C and UserTalk here, we shall simply comment occasionally on them as they arise in the course of the discussion.
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