I've thought of using the Python interpreter as my shell. That is, I would unify a lot of my applications and documents through invoking Python objects. For example, I already have a Python library for
EccoPro, lots of hooks through the
ScholarsBox libraries, and some starter code for manipulating
FlickrSystem and
OpenOfficeOrg. I look forward to learning more about
IronPython, now that my interest in it is further piqued by
ONLamp.com: Enhanced Interactive Python with IPython.