[BRLTTY] BRLTTY-6.8 has been released.

[Dave Mielke]

BRLTTY-6.8 has been released. As usual, it can be downloaded from:

   http://brltty.app/

First, a note to Linux distribution maintainers. We'd very much appreciate it if
you could please update BRLTTY to this release - 6.8 - before upgrading to the
6.16 kernel. This is because of a much needed change within the kernel regarding
how double-width and zero-width characters are rendered on the screen when using
a text console. It couldn't be done in a fully backward-compatible way from
BRLTTY's perspective so, if the 6.16 kernel is being used before BRLTTY is at
least at 6.8, a braille user may notice some unexpected characters - primarily
zero-width spaces - when viewing a screen with double-width and/or zero-width
characters on it.

BRLTTY is (finally) able to properly render a screen that's larger than 255
columns and/or lines. There's one limitation when using a kernel earlier than
6.16 - the location of the cursor can't be determined if it's beyond column
and/or line 255 of the screen, In which case it isn't rendered.

A new command - PASTE_ALTMODE - has been bound to a long press of the key
combination for PASTE. This feature will have no effect at all - even if you
accidentally (or purposefully) do a long press of PASTE unless you first go into
the Input Options submenu and set Alternate Paste Mode Enabled to Yes. On all
non-Linux platforms, and on Linux when using a kernel earlier than 6.16, a paste
is never bracketed - using the Alternate Paste Mode is how you can explicitly
cause it to be bracketed. When using at least the 6.16 kernel, BRLTTY is able to
determine if the current program supports bracketed pastes and, if it does, a
bracketed paste is done. In this case, i.e. at least the 6.16 kernel is being
used, using the Alternate Paste Mode is how you can explicitly cause an
unbracketed paste.

The list of user-facing changes within this release is as follows:

General changes:
   The --helpers-directory (-H) command line option has been added.
   The Learn Mode prompt now includes the number of seconds before it times out.
Speech changes:
   The "most" punctuation level has been added (in between "some", and "all").
   The SPK_PUNCT_LEVEL command has been added (cycles through all four levels).
Message changes:
   Message content can now be copied to the clipboard.
   Messages are now rendered in contracted braille when that's being used.
   Messages now honour the Word Wrap setting (when using computer braille).
Pasting clipboard content:
   The PASTE_ALTMODE and PASTE_HISTORY_ALTMODE commands have been added.
   PASTE_ALTMODE has been bound to a long-press of the key combination for PASTE.
Preferences Menu changes:
   The preferences file can no longer be lost during a reboot or shutdown.
   Alternate Paste Mode Enabled has been added to the Input Options submenu.
   The Command Options (advanced) submenu has been added.
BrlAPI braille driver changes:
   The correct BrlAPI client priority is now being set.
DotPad braille driver changes:
   These driver properties have been defined (prefix is DP_PROP_):
      DISPLAY: can be set to TEXT or GRAPHIC (prefix is DP_DISPLAY_)
      STATUS_CELLS: can be set to 0 (no) or 1 (status cells in text area)
      HORIZONTAL_SPACING: number of dot columns between cells (default is 1)
      VERTICAL_SPACING: number of dot rows between lines (default is 2)
   These can be changed at run-time via BRLAPI_PARAM_DRIVER_PROPERTY_VALUE.
   The driver's README contains this list along with examples.
HandyTech braille driver changes:
   Input mode on an Activator Pro model can now be toggled with Space + dots 7-8.
ExternalSpeech speech driver changes:
   The Address= parameter has been added.
   The Autospawn= parameter has been added.
   The Port= parameter has been removed (use Address= instead).
   The current settings are now sent to the server on each connect or reconnect.
Linux screen driver changes:
   Automatically detect if a paste should be bracketed (starting with kernel 6.16).
   A screen with more than 255 columns and/or lines is now rendered properly
   (although, if the kernel is earlier than 6.16, the cursor isn't shown when
   its position is beyond column and/or line 255).
   The LargeScreenBug= parameter (defaults to No) has been added
   (might be needed if the kernel is earlier than 5.1).
   The handling of foreground console switching has been improved.
AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
   Widgets which don't have a text interface are now ignored.
   The handling of double-width and zero-width characters has been improved.
BrlAPI changes:
   The version is now 0.8.7 (it was 0.8.6).
   Driver properties are now changed on the core's (not the client's) thread.
   The handling of braille display size changes has been improved.
Text table changes:
   The he_IL (Hebrew, Israel) table has been added - it can be used to read
      Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, and some western european languages.
   The he (Hebrew, generic) table is now an alias for the (new) he_IL table.
   The older he (Hebrew, generic) table is still (for now) available as he-old.
   The pt (Portuguese) table has been improved.
   Support for Esperanto and Greek has been added to the pt (Portuguese) table.
Contraction table changes:
   The de-2015 (German) table has been improved.
   The de-1998 (German) table is deprecated and will be removed soon.
TCL build changes:
   The TCL-8.6.15 change to the format of TCL_PACKAGE_PATH is now supported.
   Building against TCL-9.0 is now supported.
Android build changes:
   The crash on startup when using Android 14 (or later) has been fixed.

-- 
I believe the Bible to be the very Word of God: http://Mielke.cc/bible/
Dave Mielke            | 2213 Fox Crescent | WebHome: http://Mielke.cc/
EMail: Dave at Mielke.cc  | Ottawa, Ontario   | Twitter: @Dave_Mielke
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