I'm just starting to use Inkscape and have a lot to learn. I see it has a scripting capability but this doesn't seem easy to use without a bit of previous experience. My previous experience comes from using both Paint Shop Pro and Fireworks under Windows XP, and both programs (each has vectors in it) have ways of recording and automating a set of commands.

Fireworks
I use an old version of Fireworks and it has a system by which you can record previous actions and save them as a "Command". For example I can create the following image by a simple filter, but in this instance I decided to create a duplicate shape, change colours, gaussian blur it and move that under the original:

The list of actions for this looks like:

I can save those actions in sequence as a "command" that then appears on a menu with other saved commands:

And I can apply those to other objects:

This is not a complete system however. The commands are saved in text format (using an internal script language) but you can't directly edit them within the program, only re-record new actions over the command.

Paint Shop Pro
Paint Shop Pro used both a history window like Fireworks, but mostly uses "Macros" that are created by actively recorded from the user's actions. Then like Fireworks they are saved to script files, but these can be re-edited using a text editor within the program. And PSP uses Python as a scripting language, just like Inkscape. The code listed at http://www.livejournal.com/users/las_blog/33349.html for example adds a layer above the existing one at 50% opacity with a multiply setting (I use it for shadows in web comics).

Suggestion
So my suggestion is this - add an automation feature to Inkscape in the form of recorded actions/editable scripts.

This might need: a "History Window" showing previous actions and the ability to save those as a named script; a new menu bar entry called SCRIPTS, which would have a list of those saved scripts and maybe other commands needed to manage them; additions to the current Scripts window so that you could manage, look at and edit those scripts directly; and probably one or more folder locations to look for scripts so that you could easily use saved scripts from yourself or others (simply copy them into the folders).

Script files could be backed up or copied, for use on other computers or by other users. I'm not terribly good at scripting in Python (yet), but looking at a script recorded under Inkscape would help me understand just how Python works under Inkscape (as opposed say, to PSP), and being easily able to test and look at other people's scripts would help as well. Also, perhaps under this scheme, some of the effects currently included by default with Inkscape, like Random Tree might be more properly moved to a Scripts menu as say a "protected script" (i.e. you can't modify it, but you can copy it).

Just an idea from a new user. I'm not formally proposing such a thing (I know I need to go elsewhere for that) but just suggesting it, as a feature that might make Inkscape even easier to use.