Is there a common high-level scripting tool for Gnome, like AppleScript?
For me it's all about the APIs. When I want to do something like:
tell application "iTunes" to return every track whose genre is "Rock" and rating > 3
then I don't want to mess around with API documentation for 10 hours and trying lots of different music managers, then importing my large library, just to lose all the tags.
I expect similar APIs in the file browser, text editor, photo library, contacts, calendar, and web browser apps too. A common API is what makes an ecosystem to me.
Yes and no, there's a standard API called D-Bus. If you want to browse it you can run a program like D-Feet and choose "session bus". It's not tied to a particular language though, rather you need bindings to it. In addition, it's somewhat more complex than AppleScript, and the APIs that most apps provide are rarely documented. It does have the concept of standard interfaces, so many apps will often implement identical APIs.
For me it's all about the APIs. When I want to do something like:
tell application "iTunes" to return every track whose genre is "Rock" and rating > 3
then I don't want to mess around with API documentation for 10 hours and trying lots of different music managers, then importing my large library, just to lose all the tags.
I expect similar APIs in the file browser, text editor, photo library, contacts, calendar, and web browser apps too. A common API is what makes an ecosystem to me.