automating email responses with python

[Terry Reedy]

"Sandy Norton" <sandskyfly at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b03e80d.0212072205.4ffe3a02 at posting.google.com...
> Hi folks,
>
> I have a terrible problem responding to emails in the 'expected'
time
> frame. I think I'm always late (whatever that means) and I usually
> have to apologize for responding non-immediately. So... I've been
> thinking about an application, written in python of course, that
would
> preprocess one's emails and do some of the work that one usually
does
> prior to responding.
>
> Here is a silly example:
>
> I receive an email that is essentially a request for a document of
> some sort... my preprocessor somehow understands this and parses the
> email to a set of elements (one of which is a document), it
> preemptively searches my harddrive for the document and then
composes
> an appropriate response with the assumed document as an attachment.
I
> then accept the respone as is, or do a minor tweak to make it
> suitable.
>
> Is this a something that can be addressed with software

Yes, and with Python, I believe.  The magic words you are should look
for in the library reference manual are pop3 (receive mail), mail
(manipulate mail, including attachments), and smtp (send mail).  A
separate address for the autoresponder would be easiest.  Otherwise,
you could write a program to preview your mail on the mail server just
before you download with your regular reader.  Or you could integrate
Python with your reader if it allows such.

Terry J. Reedy