I looked for answers to this already - but I couldn't find them. Apologies is this has been asked before...
OK - I'm a Windows programmer at the moment, so I'm used to writing VBA code (Macros) to automate programs like Word, Excel etc 'from the inside' and writing scripts (typically js) to automate them 'from the outside'. So my life is full of things like...
var oExcel;
oExcel = new ActiveXObject("excel.application");
oExcel.Workbooks.Add(...);etc.
How do I use my nice shiny new Linux system to automate OpenOffice, Koffice etc. in a similar way? I've read about StarBasic, so I think I can manage to write macros in that, but those are stored in the document and processed by the application itself. Often it is preferable (or occasionally necessary) to automate from 'outside' the application, such as from script.
I'm happy with any sensible scripting language you suggest - although I must admit at the moment I'm hugely impressed with Python. If need be I can dig out my rusty C++ skills - but surely these things can be scripted?
Cheers,
Richard.