BRLTTY 1.0 is out!

[doyons@JSP.UMontreal.CA (Stephane Doyon)]

The BRLTTY development team just released the official version 1.0
of BRLTTY!

BRLTTY is a daemon which provides access to the Linux console (text mode)
for a blind person using a soft Braille display.

In short, it drives a braille terminal and provides complete screen
review functionalities.

FEATURES:
  -  Full implementation of the standard screen review facilities.
  -  A wide range of additional optional features, including blinking
     cursor and capital letters, screen freezing for leisurely review,
     attribute display to locate highlighted text, hypertext links, etc.
  -  `Intelligent' cursor routing.  This allows easy movement of the cursor
     in text editors etc. without moving the hands from the Braille
     display.
  -  A cut & paste function.  This is particularly useful for copying long
     filenames, complicated commands etc.
  -  An on-line help facility.
  -  Support for multiple Braille codes.
  -  Modular design allows relatively easy addition of drivers for other
     Braille displays, or even (hopefully) porting to other Unix-like
     platforms.

This version presents major improvements over version 0.22. It's just as
effective and reliable as the DOS programs, perhaps even more so. It is
definitely more flexible. Check it out!

If you're curious, read on! Some interesting information (learn more by
consulting our FAQ in the package):

Supported braille displays:
  - Tieman B.V.'s CombiBraille (25, 45 and 85 cell models)
  - Alva B.V.'s ABT3xx series
  - Telesensory Systems Inc.'s Navigator 20/40/80 and PowerBraille 40.
    PowerBraille 65/80 is not supported yet (need testers!)

BRLTTY has been tested on an incredible range of computers, Linux
distributions and kernel versions (including 2.0). It ran with good a response
time on a machine as pitiful as a 386SX20 with 4Mb RAM. It has been used on
laptops and on a DEC Alpha running Alpha Linux.

The BRLTTY daemon can be launched at system startup, thus it is always on to
assist you when logging in and to allow reading console messages.

BRLTTY allows full use of the virtual console feature of the Linux console
driver. Blind users will discover that using several virtual consoles is
very effective.

Since it interfaces directly with the console driver, BRLTTY allows you to
use the scrollback buffer. This makes it possible to read all boot messages
once BRLTTY has started up.

BRLTTY can be used in single user mode.

BRLTTY is small enough to fit comfortably on a root diskette.

BRLTTY can handle special video modes (for more rows and columns than 80x25).

You can even use DOSEMU with BRLTTY. The only restrictions are that cursor
routing, arrow key simulations and cut & paste don't work when using
dosemu's raw keyboard mode. We are working on that problem however.

If you have questions or comments, don't hesitate to send us a note! If
you'd like to contribute or if you're interested in support for other
braille displays, do contact us. Finally, if you have programming
information about a braille display device, please do share it with us.

THE BRLTTY TEAM
There are currently three active developers:
  -  Nikhil Nair <nn201@cus.cam.ac.uk>
  -  Nicolas Pitre: <nico@cam.org>
  -  Stephane Doyon: <doyons@jsp.umontreal.ca>
Please send mail to all three.

The BRLTTY package has been uploaded to sunsite.unc.edu, directory
/pub/Linux/Incoming. It should move to /pub/Linux/utils/console.

Thank you

-- 

Stephane Doyon
  Bacc. specialise en informatique                    doyons@IRO.umontreal.ca
  Universite de Montreal                              doyons@JSP.umontreal.ca

       A quote from StarTrek:

Have you got some reason you want my atoms scattered all over space, boy?
    -- McCoy, "Encounter at Farpoint", stardate 41153.7