[BRLTTY] brltty-5.3 has been released.

covici at ccs.covici.com covici at ccs.covici.com
Tue Dec 15 06:38:18 EST 2015


Great job -- just wanted to thank you for a great program.  

I saw a window-eyes directory, but there is no window-eyesoption for
brltty -- is this obsolete?

Dave Mielke <dave at mielke.cc> wrote:

> Version 5.3 of BRLTTY has been released. You can get it by doing the following:
> 
>    Go to: http://brltty.com/
>    Click on: Download
>    Click on: Current Release
> 
> Here's a summary of the major things that have happened to BRLTTY since 5.2:
> 
> General fixes:
>    The missing key event (stuck key) problem has been resolved.
>    The braille display is now initialized when the -q (--quiet) option is used.
>    Playing alert tunes has been moved to a dedicated thread.
>    PCM (sound card) tone generation is now way more efficient.
>    Program-relative paths are no longer used for relative paths specified via
>       command line options or configuration file directives.
>    Explicit paths for tables no longer consider the tables directory path.
>    The -U (--updatable-directory) option has been added (it used to be
>       hard-coded to /var/lib/brltty/).
>    Braille driver parameters may be specified via the fourth boot parameter
>       (use + to separate them).
>    The speech FIFO on Linux has been moved to the writable directory (see -W -
>       the default is /var/run/brltty/).
>    The Console Bell Alert preference has been added - when enabled, and with
>       the tune device set to PCM, the console bell can be heard even if the PC
>       speaker either doesn't exist or isn't supported.
> New and changed commands:
>    The toLeft modifier can be applied to any vertical motion command.
>    The AltGr (Right Alt) and GUI (Windows) keys are supported.
>    The PRPGRPH (go to previous paragraph) command navigates to the first line
>       of the current paragraph (or, if already on it, to the first line of the
>       previous paragraph) rather than to the last line of the previous
>       paragraph.
>    The space bar is a real space (rather than a braille character with no dots)
>       when the keyboard is in Unicode braille input mode.
>    Disabling the braille keyboard now disables all braille input commands.
>    New commands that always skip forward/backward to a nonblank braille window:
>       NXNBWIN, PRNBWIN
>    Sticky modifier command improvements:
>       Cycle through next,on,off (rather than just on,off) - next means just for
>       the next typed character, and times out after five seconds.
>    New commands to start/stop the braille,speech,screen drivers:
>       BRL_START, BRL_STOP, SPK_START, SPK_STOP, SCR_START, SCR_STOP
>    New commands for attaching to a specific (not necessarily current) console:
>       SELECT, SELECT_NEXT, SELECT_PREV
> Albatross braille driver changes:
>    Detection of no pending input has been improved.
>    Recognizing a failed autodetection probe has been improved.
> Alva braille driver changes:
>    Establishing a Bluetooth connection is now supported for more models.
> Baum braille driver changes:
>    The standard braille keyboard chords are supported.
>    The Refreshabraille has an improved key table.
>    The Conny has an improved key table.
>    The 12-cell Vario/BrailleConnect now uses the Conny key table.
>    The protocols= parameter has been renamed to protocol= and accepts a
>       specific protocol name (default, escape, hid1, hid2, ht, pb).
>    Support for the following models has been added:
>       VarioUltra, Pronto!, Brailliant2, SuperVario2, HID Refreshabraille 18
> BrailleMemo braille driver changes:
>    Model autodetection has been improved.
> FreedomScientific braille driver changes:
>    The key tables for newer models use the newer key names:
>       The wheels are called Nav keys.
>       The GDF keys are called Selector keys.
> HandyTech braille driver changes:
>    Touch-based navigation has been implemented for the following models:
>       Modular Evolution, Active Braille, Active Star
> HIMS braille driver changes:
>    Function keys can be emulated by pressing space with a routing key.
>    The Braille Sense U2 is recognized.
>    The Braille Edge scroll keys are now mapped correctly.
> HumanWare braille driver changes:
>    Bindings for adding Alt, Control, or both to a function key have been added.
> MDV braille driver changes:
>    The bindings are now defined within key tables.
>    Support for the following models has been added:
>       Lilli Blu, MB248, MB408+
> Papenmeier braille driver changes:
>    The status key bindings have been standardized across the various models.
>    Minor changes to the front key bindings (for models with 13).
>    XT keyboard support has been fixed.
> XWindow braille driver changes:
>    Support for the Unicode braille characters has been added.
> AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
>    The widget with focus on startup is determined correctly.
>    The currently focused widget is cached for efficiency.
>    The screen size is implicitly increased based on the cursor's location.
>    The release= (yes, no) parameter has been added.
> Linux screen driver changes:
>    VGA foreground and background colours are now reported correctly.
>    A font change now triggers a braille display update.
>    The VT= (number) parameter has been added - 0 means the current console.
>    Systemd is no longer blocked from starting a login session on an unused tty.
> Screen screen driver changes:
>    ASCII control characters can now be entered.
> BrlAPI changes:
>    The version is now 0.6.4 (it was 0.6.3).
>    Cursor blinking finally works again.
>    The braille display is refreshed whenever it comes back online if the client
>       has focus.
> Language profile support fixes:
>    The language profile can now be changed when there's no braille device.
>    The braille device and keyboard key table help texts are regenerated
>       according to the new localization when the language profile is changed.
> Text table changes:
>    The en_CA (English Canada) text table has been updated.
>    The fr-vs (VisioBraille) text table has been updated.
>    The alias directive has been added.
>    Support for the variable and conditional directives has been added.
>    The -u (--undefined) option has been added to brltty-ttb - it reports
>       the characters in the current screen font that aren't yet defined in the
>       text table.
>    brltty-ttb can write C preprocessor format (cpp) tables.
> Contraction table changes:
>    The Unicode braille characters are now handled internally.
>    The en-us-g2 (grade 2 US English) contraction table has been updated.
>    The zh-tw (Taiwan Chinese) contraction table has been updated.
> Key table changes:
>    Major chords key subtable changes:
>       Tab is now Space+Dots45 (it was Space+Dots2356).
>       Backspace is now just Dot7, and Enter is now just Dot8.
>       Add Space to get just dot 7 or just dot 8.
>       Unchorded bindings have been added for navigating the preferences menu:
>          Dot1: go to the previous item
>          Dot4: go to the next item
>          Dot2: go to the first item
>          Dot5: go to the last item
>          Dot3: select the previous setting for the current item
>          Dot6: select the next setting for the current item
>          Dot7: go back one level
>          Dot8: exit the menu
>    Minor changes to the keypad keyboard table.
>    The assignDefault directive has been added.
>    The -r (--reStructuredText) option has been added to brltty-ktb - it causes
>       the help text to be formatted as reStructuredText.
>    The help text has been improved:
>       Related bindings have been organized into functional groups.
>       Each of these groups has a descriptive header.
>       Variants of the same binding are listed together.
>       The bindings for Help and Learn are intentionally listed at the top.
> Java bindings fixes:
>    The JDK hierarchy is located even when symbolic links point to it.
>    The subdirectory containing machine-dependent JNI definitions is included.
> Android updates:
>    F9 goes to the Global Actions (Power Off) dialog (Lollipop and later).
>    F10 is the Menu key.
>    The braille display stays in the active window (new problem as of Lollipop).
>    The order in which screen elements are rendered is more intuitive.
>    Czech translations have been added.
>    Finnish translations have been added.
> Windows updates:
>    Support for the Unicode braille characters has been added.
> brltty-tune (formerly tunetest) changes:
>    The tune syntax has been completely changed.
>    Tunes can be read from files.
> Build changes:
>    The autoconf dependency has been updated to 2.64 (from 2.53).
>    The ktbtest command has been renamed to brltty-ktb.
>    The tunetest command has been renamed to brltty-tune.
>    The brltty-atb, brltty-ktb, and brltty-tune commands are installed.
>    Key table help text is rendered in HTML (as well as in plain text).
>    Systemd service ready notification (via type=notify) is supported.
>    mkwin command updates:
>       The -C (Cygwin root directory) option has been added.
>       A safe, relative path to the configure script can now be used.
> 
> -- 
> Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | The Bible is the very Word of God.
> Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario   | http://Mielke.cc/bible/
> EMail: Dave at Mielke.cc | Canada  K2A 1H7   | http://FamilyRadio.org/
> _______________________________________________
> This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list.
> To post a message, send an e-mail to: BRLTTY at mielke.cc
> For general information, go to: http://mielke.cc/mailman/listinfo/brltty
> 

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici at ccs.covici.com


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