[BRLTTY] BRLTTY 4.2 has been released.

[Dave Mielke]

BRLTTY-4.2 has been released. It can be downloaded from BRLTTY's web site. 
Select "Download", and then select "Current Release". BRLTTY's web site is 
here:

   http://mielke.cc/brltty/

The most noticeable change for users has been the introduction of key tables 
for braille drivers. BRLTTY-4.0 introduced keyboard key tables, which allow 
users to easily bind keyboard key combinations to BRLTTY commands. The binding 
of braille display controls to BRLTTY commands, however, was still done within 
the source code of the drivers. Now, in BRLTTY-4.2, the newest as well as the 
most commonly used drivers have been converted to use key tables, rather than 
hard-coding, to define their bindings. Users can now easily customize what the 
controls on their braille displays do by simply editing a text file. The twelve 
braille drivers which now use key tables are:

   Albatross, Alva, Baum, CombiBraille, FreedomScientific, HandyTech,
   HIMS, Metec, Papenmeier, Pegasus, Seika, Voyager.

Here's a summary of the changes which are in release 4.2 of BRLTTY:

Ending a cut operation beyond the right edge of the screen has been fixed.
Key/character insertion works with newer versions of Xorg.
The braille driver help files have been converted to plain text.
Multiple instances of brltty may not use the same PID file.
The keypad keyboard key table provides a braille input mode.
The working directory is no longer set to the data directory.
The writable directory is created if it doesn't already exist.
USB I/O via libusb1 is supported.
The Metec braille driver has been added.
The eSpeak speech driver has been added.
The AtSpi2 screen driver has been added.
A BrlAPI client for Window-Eyes has been developed.
Albatross braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
   USB support has been added.
Alva braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
Baum braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
   Vario Pro wheels are supported.
   For Vario Pro models, only update the text cells which have changed.
CombiBraille braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
FreedomScientific braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
   Bluetooth support has been added.
   The Focus Blue is supported.
   Rockers and bumper bars are recognized as distinct keys.
HandyTech braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
   Pressing two routing keys simultaneously immediately cuts the selected text.
   Newer models which use the USB HID interface are supported.
   The InputMode= parameter has been removed.
HIMS braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
Papenmeier braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
   The DebugReads= and DebugWrites= parameters have been removed.
   Support for the configuration file has been removed (now uses key tables).
Pegasus braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
Seika braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
Voyager braille driver changes:
   Converted to use key tables.
BrlAPI changes:
   Key event support has been added.
   Various client fixes for the Windows environment.
   Various fixes for when threads aren't available.
   No more extraneous connection to localhost when using a TCP/IP host name.
   A fix to exception handling within the Python bindings.
ExternalSpeech speech driver changes:
   Two-letter driver identification code changed to "xs" (from "es").
AtSpi screen driver changes:
   Static linking is supported.
   A problem causing crashes on 64-bit platforms has been resolved.
Windows screen driver changes:
   Significant reductions in memory usage.
   Better handling of unreadable screens.
   Better handling of the Alt+Tab window.
DOS changes:
   Log records are written to the file "brltty.log".
   The TSI braille driver stays at 9600 baud.
Key table changes:
   Add the following directives:
      assign, context, hide, hotkey, ifkey, map, note, superimpose, title.
   Add the \{name} variable name expansion syntax.
   Add the ! immediate key syntax.
   A command may have more than one modifier.
   The line command modifiers are supported.
   Keyboard key table names are now prefixed with "kbd-".
   The ktbtest tool has been added.
Linux changes:
   USB device inspection is more efficient.
   Fixes to keyboard connect/disconnect monitoring.
   Fixes to key event handling.
   PCM and MIDI support defaults to ALSA (instead of to OSS).
Windows changes:
   Improved conversion of Windows errors to system errors (errno values).
   Bluetooth support has been added.
   Text table autoselection has been fixed.
   Text table editing (ttbtest -e) is supported.
Build changes:
   --enable-usb-support changed to --with-usb-package[=package,...].
   --disable-usb-support changed to --without-usb-package.
   --enable-bluetooth-support changed to --with-bluetooth-package[=package,...].
   --disable-bluetooth-support changed to --without-bluetooth-package.
Text tables updated:
   hu, sk.
Contraction tables updated:
   de-kurzschrift, en-us-g2, zh-tw.

-- 
Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | The Bible is the very Word of God.
Phone: 1-613-726-0014 | Ottawa, Ontario   | 2011 May 21 is the Day of Judgement.
EMail: dave at mielke.cc | Canada  K2A 1H7   | 2011 Oct 21 is the End of the World.
http://FamilyRadio.com/                   | http://Mielke.cc/bible/