[MlMt] Unattended mode?

[Steven M. Bellovin]

On 7 Aug 2017, at 9:54, Benny Kjær Nielsen wrote:

> On 1 Aug 2017, at 17:41, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>
>> I run SpamSieve and many sorting rules on my office iMac.  However, I 
>> travel a lot, which means that when MailMate displays and blocks 
>> while waiting for a response, all of that stops working for an 
>> extended period.  Getting rid of modal dialog boxes entirely would 
>> certainly help, but sometimes an important account is affected.
>
> Yes, (most of) the modal dialog boxes are embarrassing for me, but it 
> would still be a problem for you if the problems are related to 
> accounts that you need (since the alternative is to temporarily take 
> an account off line and wait for user feedback in a non-modal dialog).

Yes, and some are serious, e.g., bad certificate problems, though in 
cases where there's a "Retry" button an increasing backoff might help.  
(Aside: if the dialog box has been pending for too long, often the 
server will have disconnected, so I have to do a "Cancel" or something 
else that will let me take the account offline and back online.)
>
>> Is there any way to see and respond to dialog boxes from a remote 
>> command line?
>
> I *think* it would be possible using AppleScript. Maybe even by simply 
> sending a “Return” to the front-most window (although you might 
> want to “hit” a “Cancel” button depending on the problem).

I'll have to experiment with that. Is there any way, in AppleScript, to 
know which dialog box is pending?



         --Steve Bellovin, https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb