Using my own form to register user

So, the plan is to the users table from the vanilla forums for the main website along with, obviously, the forums. So, to go along with this, I want to use my own registration form in addition to the form on the forums. So, I have each column down for the users table except for the password hashing. I found the php class where you hash the password, but it just seems like there are so many functions to do one task and I really can't understand it. Could someone please explain to me how I could use vanillas method of password hashing for my own form?

Also, is there anything else I should be worried about when inserting data into the users table myself? By myself, I mean using my own query. Not to mention, I can't even find vanillas query for inserting a new user!

Thanks!

miquel

there is a UserManager class in the /library/people, where the method for inserting new users to the system is