Why is there no OS X Automator clone for Linux? (was: Serious OO/Debian problem...)

[Mike Kallies]

On 7/14/06, Christopher Browne <cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 7/13/06, Jason Spiro <jasonspiro4-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
...
> > OTOH, is OpenOffice's support for Visual Basic for Applications not a
> > start at scriptability?
>
> It is, but I'd argue it is of the wrong sort, as it represents
> scripting that only works *inside* OO.
>
> The sort of thing you can do with Automator is to tell it to look up
> in your Address Book for people with birthdays, and submit "Happy
> Birthday" messages to them.
>
> That isn't a function internal to any particular application; that
> involves "hooking into" several applications.
>
> This is, in effect, a "Unix way"; in Gancarz's terms, this is all
> about fixing up principle 8, "Avoid captive user interfaces."
...

This reminds me terribly of Windows Scripting Host,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSH

OO seems to support it in Windows:

http://udk.openoffice.org/common/man/tutorial/office_automation.html

I've never worked with it, but I have to wonder how a common set of
application controls can be created on the Linux desktop... I mean,
even if KDE has a scripting tool, can it interact with OO?  Could it
ever?

I'm just saying that it's not an OO limitation, but a feature which
I'm not sure was carried through to the Linux version, and if it was,
I'm not sure how it could be used.

-Mike
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