For those of you who have experience scripting in linux:
Suppose I’m writing scripts to help me do a combination of the typical kinds of work a small business owner, freelance developer and web developer do --yes, I know, these overlap. What do you miss when scripting on the mac vs. linux; what delights you when scripting on the mac vs. linux?
First of all I would never use the term Linux scripting but shell scripting. It’s the CLI (Command Line Interpreter) who interprets shell commands. Comparing AppleScript with Shell Script is like comparing Apples with Oranges because there is no such thing as AppleScrtipt in linux (at least not in kde and gnome). Mac OS X is an desktop like kde and gnome and AppleScript is an scripting language that works in Mac OS X’s environment and not UNIX (Darwin). However shell scripting is possible in AppleScript and visa versa (on a mac). But in 99% of all cases it’s an AppleScript who does execute shell commands/scripts and 1% is a shell script executing an AppleScript command/script. AppleScript + Shell Script is a strong combo who lacks on other Unix (and Unix Based) machines but is very powerful for both programmer and end-user.