| BRLTTY is a background process (daemon) providing access to the Linux/Unix | |
| console (when in text mode) for a blind person using a refreshable braille | |
| display. | |
| Version 6.6, Jul 2023 | |
| Copyright (C) 1995-2023 by The BRLTTY Developers. | |
| Web Page: http://brltty.app/ | |
| BRLTTY is free software. It comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. | |
| BRLTTY is placed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License | |
| [LGPL] as published by the Free Software Foundation; see the file LICENSE-LGPL | |
| for details. Version 2.1 (or any later version) of the LGPL may be used when | |
| redistributing and/or modifying this software. This statement applies to all | |
| the files contained within this directory structure. | |
| This software is maintained by: Dave Mielke <dave@mielke.cc> | |
| The members of The BRLTTY Team are: | |
| Dave Mielke <dave@mielke.cc> | |
| Mario Lang <mlang@delysid.org> | |
| Nicolas Pitre <nico@fluxnic.net> | |
| Stéphane Doyon <s.doyon@videotron.ca> | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Contacting Us | |
| ============= | |
| We recommend that you contact us via BRLTTY's mailing list. You can post to the | |
| list by sending an e-mail to <BRLTTY@brltty.app>. To subscribe, go to the list's | |
| Information Page at [http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty]. | |
| If you have any interest in BRLTTY, please drop us a note. We're interested in | |
| knowing who BRLTTY's users are. Even if all goes well and you have no problems | |
| with this package, please let us know you're there, and tell us which brand of | |
| display you use. If you have problems, we'll be happy to help. All your | |
| comments, suggestions, criticisms, questions, and contributions are welcome! | |
| We offer a special invitation to the developers of braille displays. It's our | |
| goal to support as many models as possible within the Linux/Unix environment. | |
| While we always do as much as we can toward this end, we'd be even more | |
| effective with your help. The most important thing we need is the details | |
| regarding the communication protocol(s) of your braille display(s). If you | |
| prefer to contact us privately for this sort of thing then we invite you to | |
| send e-mail to any member(s) of The BRLTTY Team (see above). | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Introduction for Those New to Refreshable Braille | |
| ================================================= | |
| There are two common ways in which blind people access computers. | |
| The first, and more widely known, is synthesized speech. While having many | |
| advantages, e.g. speed for reading plain text, speech does have its drawbacks. | |
| Speech output generally gives little information about formatting, making | |
| tables, spreadsheets, etc. difficult to use. It can also be difficult to use | |
| speech output with particularly technical material containing lots of symbols | |
| (though many determined people do use it for such things). | |
| The other solution, which attempts to answer some of these problems, is Braille | |
| output. A soft (or refreshable) Braille display typically consists of a single | |
| line of 20, 40 or 80 characters, each made up of a matrix of four rows and two | |
| columns of dots. Each dot is individually driven by a separate motor, making | |
| the whole assembly extremely expensive. | |
| A soft Braille display is connected to the PC by a serial, parallel, or USB | |
| port. Software on the PC drives the display, reproducing a rectangle of the | |
| screen image (which we shall call the window) in Braille. Buttons on the | |
| Braille display itself are used to send signals back to the software, | |
| instructing it to move the window around the screen, or to perform some other | |
| specialized function. | |
| Using a soft Braille display with a 40- or 80-character line, it is quite easy | |
| for a blind user to appreciate the format of information on the screen, as well | |
| as to read and edit on-line Braille documents (a concept not widely enough | |
| utilized). | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Introduction to BRLTTY | |
| ====================== | |
| While soft Braille displays have been used for many years under MS-DOS, and are | |
| now being used under Windows, it seems that they haven't been used on Unix | |
| consoles too much. This could well be because blind people have been able to | |
| access Unix systems through accessible terminals. With the advent of PC-based | |
| Unix systems, e.g. Linux, the need has become evident. | |
| BRLTTY attempts to fill this gap. It runs as a background process, possibly | |
| started at boot-time, and allows a refreshable Braille user to access text mode | |
| applications directly from a Unix console. Since BRLTTY runs as a background | |
| process, it gives the user complete freedom of choice regarding applications | |
| and development tools. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Features | |
| ======== | |
| * Full implementation of the usual screen review facilities. | |
| * Choice between `block', `underline', or `no' cursor. | |
| * Optional `underline' to indicate specially highlighted text. | |
| * Optional use of `blinking' (rates individually settable) for cursor, special highlighting underline, | |
| and/or capital letters. | |
| * Screen freezing for leisurely review. | |
| * `Intelligent' cursor routing, allowing easy fetching of cursor within text | |
| editors, web browsers, etc., without moving ones hands from the Braille | |
| display. | |
| * A cut & paste function which is particularly useful for copying long file | |
| names, copying text between virtual terminals, entering complicated | |
| commands, etc. | |
| * Table driven in-line contracted braille (English and French provided). | |
| * Support for multiple braille codes. | |
| * Ability to identify an unknown character. | |
| * Ability to inspect character highlighting. | |
| * An on-line help facility. | |
| * A preferences menu. | |
| * Basic speech support. | |
| * Modular design allowing relatively easy addition of drivers for other | |
| Braille displays, or even (hopefully) porting to other Unix-like platforms. | |
| * An application programming interface. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Currently Supported Hardware | |
| ============================ | |
| BRLTTY has been tested on: | |
| * a variety of Intel-based PCs (desktops, servers, laptops, PDAs) | |
| * an Alpha workstation | |
| * a StrongARM based Netwinder | |
| * several Linux kernels (1.2.13 and beyond) | |
| * all major Linux distributions (including Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, SuSE) | |
| * Solaris/Sparc (release 7 and beyond) | |
| * Solaris/Intel (release 9 and beyond) | |
| * OpenBSD/Intel (release 3.4 and beyond) | |
| * FreeBSD/Intel (release 5.1 and beyond) | |
| * NetBSD/Intel (release 1.6 and beyond) | |
| * Windows 95/98/XP | |
| * MS-DOS | |
| * Mac OS X (in conjunction with a supplied patch for the screen program) | |
| * Android/ARM (4.0 and beyond) | |
| The following braille displays are supported: | |
| - Albatross [46/80] | |
| - Alva [ABT(3nn), Delphi(4nn), Satellite(5nn), Braille System 40, | |
| Braille Controller 640/680, Easy Link 12] | |
| - Baum [BrailleConnect 12/24/32/40/64/80, Brailliant 24/32/40/64/80, Conny 12, | |
| DM80 Plus, EcoVario 24/32/40/64/80, Inka, NLS eReader Zoomax, | |
| Orbit Reader 20/40, PocketVario 24, Pronto! V3 18/40, Pronto! V4 18/40, | |
| RBT 40/80, Refreshabraille 18, SuperVario 32/40/64/80, Vario 40/80, | |
| VarioConnect 12/24/32/40/64/80, VarioPro 40/64/80, VarioUltra 20/32/40] | |
| - BrailComm [III] | |
| - BrailleLite [18/40/M20/M40] | |
| - BrailleMemo [Pocket (16), Smart (16), 32, 40] | |
| - BrailleNote [18/32, Apex] | |
| - Braudi | |
| - BrlAPI | |
| - Canute [360 (40x9)] | |
| - Cebra [20/40/60/80/100/120/140] | |
| - CombiBraille [25/45/85] | |
| - DotPad | |
| - EcoBraille [20/40/80] | |
| - EuroBraille [AzerBraille, Clio, Esys, Iris, NoteBraille, Scriba] | |
| - FrankAudiodata [B2K84] | |
| - FreedomScientific [Focus 1 44/70/84, Focus 2 40/80, Focus Blue 14/40/80, | |
| PAC Mate 20/40] | |
| - HandyTech [Modular 20/40/80, Modular Evolution 64/88, Modular Connect 88, | |
| Active Braille, Active Braille S, Active Star 40, | |
| Actilino, Activator, | |
| Basic Braille 16/20/32/40/48/64/80, Braillino, | |
| Braille Wave, Easy Braille, Braille Star 40/80, | |
| Connect Braille 40, Bookworm] | |
| - Hedo [ProfiLine, MobilLine] | |
| - HIMS [Braille Sense, SyncBraille, Braille Edge, | |
| Smart Beetle, QBrailleXL] | |
| - HumanWare [Brailliant BI 14/32/40, Brailliant BI 20X/40X, | |
| Brailliant B 80, BrailleNote Touch, BrailleOne, | |
| APH Chameleon 20, APH Mantis Q40, NLS eReader] | |
| - Inceptor [BrailleMe (20)] | |
| - Iris | |
| - Libbraille | |
| - LogText [32] | |
| - MDV [MB208, MB248, MB408L, MB408L+, Lilli Blu] | |
| - Metec [BD-40] | |
| - MiniBraille [20] | |
| - MultiBraille [MB125CR, MB145CR, MB185CR] | |
| - NinePoint | |
| - Papenmeier [Compact 486, Compact/Tiny, IB 80 CR Soft, 2D Lite (plus), | |
| 2D Screen Soft, EL 80, EL 2D 40/66/80, EL 40/66/70/80 S, | |
| EL 40/60/80 C, EL 2D 80 S, EL 40 P, EL 80 II, Elba 20/32, | |
| Trio 40/Elba20/Elba32, Live 20/40] | |
| - Pegasus [20/27/40/80] | |
| - Seika [3/4/5 (40), 80, Mini (16)] | |
| - TechniBraille | |
| - TSI [Navigator 20/40/80, PowerBraille 40/65/80] | |
| - VideoBraille [40] | |
| - VisioBraille [20/40] | |
| - Voyager [44/70, Part232 (serial adapter), BraillePen/EasyLink] | |
| The following speech synthesizers are supported: | |
| - Alva [Delphi(4nn)] | |
| - Android [text to speech engine] | |
| - BrailleLite | |
| - CombiBraille | |
| - eSpeak [text to speech engine] | |
| - eSpeak-NG [text to speech engine] | |
| - ExternalSpeech [runs /usr/local/bin/externalspeech] | |
| - Festival [text to speech engine] | |
| - FestivalLite [text to speech engine] | |
| - GenericSay [pipes to /usr/local/bin/say] | |
| - Mikropuhe [text to speech engine] | |
| - SpeechDispatcher [text to speech server] | |
| - Swift [text to speech engine] | |
| - Theta [text to speech engine] | |
| - ViaVoice [text to speech engine] | |
| The ability to add a new Braille display depends on the level of cooperation | |
| from its manufacturer in providing programming information. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Layout of the Archive | |
| ===================== | |
| BRLTTY is distributed as a single GNU compressed tar file named | |
| brltty-<release>.tar.gz | |
| where `<release>' is the release number. When the archive is unpacked, there | |
| should be a subdirectory called `Documents' which contains all of the general BRLTTY | |
| documentation including the manual in various formats, and the list of | |
| Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). | |
| The source files for the main, device-independent core of BRLTTY are in the | |
| top-level directory. There is one subdirectory for each Braille display type, | |
| containing display-specific source files and documentation. | |
| Finally, some Braille definition tables, along with tools to manipulate them, | |
| are available in the `Tables' subdirectory. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Building the Package | |
| ==================== | |
| Building BRLTTY is a four step process. The first is to run `./autogen` to | |
| setup your build enviroment for the first time. You typically only need to do | |
| this once. The second is to run `./configure' to prepare the build environment | |
| for your operating system, and to customize it for your particular requirement. | |
| The third is to run `make' to compile and link BRLTTY and its drivers. The | |
| fourth is to run `make install' to copy all the needed files into their proper | |
| locations. | |
| ./autogen | |
| ./configure | |
| make | |
| make install | |
| Before configuring BRLTTY, you may wish to check out what choices you have | |
| regarding its customization. Invoking `./configure --help' will show you what | |
| options are available. Although the defaults are adequate for most environments | |
| and requirements, and although many things can be specified at run-time, there | |
| are a couple of configuration options worth mentioning here. To build BRLTTY | |
| with a specific driver built-in (usually only necessary when preparing BRLTTY | |
| for use on a boot disk), use the `--with-braille-driver=' option. To set the | |
| default device to the one which your display is usually connected to, use the | |
| `--with-braille-device=' option. | |
| For information specific to a particular driver, please see the `README' file | |
| in the corresponding subdirectory. Finally, see the `Documents' subdirectory | |
| for the manual as well as a few other interesting literary creations. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| RedHat Package Manager | |
| ====================== | |
| BRLTTY is also distributed in the RPM (RedHat Package Manager) format. The | |
| following files are available: | |
| brltty-<release>-<version>.src.rpm | |
| brltty-<release>-<version>.i386.rpm | |
| To build and install BRLTTY from scratch: | |
| Download the .src.rpm file. | |
| Install the source with: rpm -ivh brltty-<release>-<version>.src.rpm | |
| Build and install it with: rpm -bi brltty-<release>-<version> | |
| If your system is an x86 then you don't need to be concerned with building | |
| BRLTTY since we provide prebuilt binaries for these platforms. Just do: | |
| Download the .i386.rpm file. | |
| Install or upgrade it with: rpm -Uvh brltty-<release>-<version>.i386.rpm | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Executing BRLTTY | |
| ================ | |
| If you compiled BRLTTY with a braille driver built-in, simply invoking `brltty' | |
| should start it with all defaults. Alternatively, you might need to specify a | |
| Braille driver with the `-b' option. `brltty -h' displays a brief summary of | |
| all available options. | |
| You may use a configuration file for most options as well. See the example | |
| configuration file `brltty.conf' in the `Documents' subdirectory. | |
| And don't forget to review the notes for your Braille display. See the `README' | |
| file in its driver's subdirectory. | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |