[BRLTTY] translation and contraction table question

[Scott Haeger]

A couple questions for the team:

1.  I am trying to get a better understanding of how to use the 
translation and contraction table, but I am not having much success.  
Here is my setup:

Brltty is latest from svn and built with default settings.
Python bindings to brlapi with the XWindows braille display. 
Start brltty with brltty -b xw -x no -e -n -l 7 -c en-us-g2.ctb  (for 
contraction)
Use script to writeText("altogether") expecting to see "alt" displayed.  
However, "altogether" is displayed.

2.  Similar question 1 involving translation table.  I would expect to 
see different pin combinations for some characters. 

3.  What is the best way to change the cursor shape?

Thanks for your time,
Scott Haeger