Scripting to allow exponential growth of available features

[matt.baker]

I've seen this topic raised before and I'm sure the devs are well aware of the need for scripting, but the previous features requests seem to have been moved to "Older Feature Requests & Suggestion Posts" and I wanted to keep it in the fore-front.

Providing a method manipulate the document and interface programmatically using a customisable set of common UI controls would be such a huge step forward and allow the number of features to grow exponentially:

Quote

'Affinity doesn't have a tool to do x or y - no problem, just script it!'

As will always be the case, in almost all software, the development can't keep up with the sheer number of feature requests. At least with some sort of scripting, a number of these features could be implemented by the community, even if it is just an interim workaround/patch. They may not be the most refined implementation and some may even be darn right hacky, but at least it simplifies someone's work-flow.

Below are some prime candidates where the community could use scripting to implement missing/desired features in a more timely manner.

• Simplify path (starting with the easier straight line only version)
• Convert nodes to basic shape (rectangle and circle) - basic shape pattern matching of selected nodes.
• Merge node doubles/duplicates
• Select same color / fill / stroke / appearance
• Select/filter by type
• Measure line/path length/distance in addition to displacement
• Offset path

I know this is a huge undertaking to implement and lots of thought to go into this, but I could see it paying itself back in the long-run.