Open Source Macro Programs?

BlueCup asks: "I've wanted to switch to Linux for quite a while, but my work requires a lot of automated tasks. For these tasks I have global macros set up using Toolsworks and Macro Express. So far I've looked for equivalents for Linux, but have been unsuccessful. Does anyone know of a similar program that reaches the same level of complexity of the above programs for Linux?"

Comments

Then why do you want to switch to linux?

[Lord Bitman]

I dont think anyone can fairly answer your question without some specifics about why you would want to switch to Linux. I mean, I'm guessing "I love the command-line!" isnt high on the list.
This comment may never be seen, it depends on if it's seen first by the "He hates linux! Get him!" mods or the "He didnt jump to supporting various open-source projects, I have no idea what he's saying but it's probably insightful!" mods..

If this is the kind of tool you are used to using, I dont think Linux is the right solution for your "automated tasks". I guess that's just my opinion, but people who are used to using "Macros" which act like a user instead of "Scripts" which do their best to get the job done and tend not to be friendly to programs which dont know about them, I don't think they're ready for linux.
This isnt a "Linux isnt ready for them", thing, it just seems to me that Linux is a different way of thinking, seperate from these "Automating a task means having the computer repeat you" macro programs. (Yes, it's a simplification, but since the guy is talking about "Using these programs" instead of "programming in VBA", I'm guessing he's having the programs do most of the work for him)

Explain what it is that attracts you to linux, and you're likely to get an answer which comes closer to what you really want.
That said, check out "Expect" here

actually, Gnome (and hence Linux) does it well

[mike_sucks]

Remote Control and Scripting of Gnome Applications with Python. It should also work for KDE and Java apps once they get their act together.

It's here today, and it works. I was at the talk at LCA this year. Write a Python script, add a launcher for it on your panel/desktop, and away you go!

-mike

Perl.

[jonadab]

Perl isn't called a "glue language" for no reason. You can stick *anything*
together with it. Need to process an image using Gimp's filters, resize it,
and insert it into an OpenOffice document? No problem, Perl can do that.
(You need the Gimp/Perl bindings, which most distros make a separate package
from the Gimp itself, but installing them easy. If you want the script to
be portable at all, you also want Archive::Zip. If portability doesn't
matter you can backtick out to the info-zip version of zip instead.) Need to
automatically retrieve a webpage, fill out and submit a series of forms, parse
the resulting page, extract some data, and insert that into the document too?
No problem. (You want WWW::Mechanize and HTML::Tree.) I could go on, but you
get the idea. When it comes to automating common repetitive tasks, Perl is
awesome, and the modules on the CPAN have most of the work already done.

If all you want is to press a key on the keyboard and have a series of key
strokes punched in, get yourself a macro-equipped keyboard. (Avant makes the
top-of-the-line ones, but there are cheaper ones out there too.) But if you
want to make things happen automatically while you sleep, read slashdot, and
do other unproductive things, learn Perl. Also learn to use cron.