Note: this file is in reversed chronological order (bottom to top).


April 7, 2026:
 - BRLTTY 6.9.1 released:
   New commands:
      CLIP_CLEAR: Remove the current clipboard content.
      CLIP_SHOW: Show the current clipboard content as a message.
      COPY_SMART_NEW: Copy the selected item to the clipboard.
      COPY_SMART_ADD: Append the selected item to the clipboard.
   Clipboard changes:
      CLIP_COPY and CLIP_APPEND no longer interfere with the COPY_LINE or COPY_RECT start location.
      The clipboard now uses a new line (rather than a carriage return) to delimit lines.
      this normalizes the text retrieved via:
	 Reading the CLIPBOARD_CONTENT BrlAPI parameter.
	 The brltty-clip --get-content (-g) host command.
	 Reading the file written by the CLIP_SAVE command (/var/lib/brltty/clipboard).
      The CLIP_CLEAR and CLIP_SHOW commands have been added.
      CLIP_CLEAR has been bound to a long press of CLIP_RESTORE (Space + x + Dot7).
      CLIP_SHOW has been bound to a long press of CLIP_SAVE (Space + x + Dot8).
   Smart Copy:
      The COPY_SMART_NEW and COPY_SMART_ADD commands have been added.
      COPY_SMART_NEW has been bound to a long press of CLIP_NEW.
      COPY_SMART_ADD has been bound to a long press of CLIP_ADD.
   Alert Messages and Alert Dots:
      Alert messages now have a higher priority than alert dots.
      Alert dots now work correctly when viewing messages and frozen screen images.
      Event Alerts submenu changes:
	 Both Alert Messages and Alert Dots now default to On.
	 The Alert Dots Duration setting has been added (defaults to 0.4 seconds).
      Some alert dots patterns have been modified and more have been added:
	 ⠭ (x, dots 1,3,4,6): reject: the key combination was invalid or the command couldn't be executed
	 ⢁ (dots 1,8): copy begin: a copy to the clipboard has been started
	 ⡈ (dots 4,7): copy end: the copy to the clipboard has completed
	 ⠶ (low g, dots 2,3,5,6): no change: an adjustment is at its limit (e.g. volume can't be increased further)
	 ⣛ (dots 1,4,2,5,7,8): toggle on: a capability has been enabled
	 ⣭ (dots 1,4,3,6,7,8) toggle off: a capability has been disabled
	 ⢞ (t + 8, dots 2,3,4,5,8): tracking on: the braille window is tracking the screen cursor
	 ⡞ (t + 7, dots 2,3,4,5,7): tracking off: the braille window isn't tracking the screen cursor
	 ⢋ (f + 8, dots 1,2,4,8): frozen screen: you're currently viewing a frozen image of the screen
	 ⡋ (f + 7, dots 1,2,4,7): live screen: you're currently viewing the live screen
	 ⠋ (f7, dots 1,2,4): frozen screen half-minute reminder
	 ⢎ (dots 4,2,3,8): wrap up: panning left wrapped from the beginning of the current line to the end of the previous one
	 ⡱ (dots 1,5,6,7): wrap down: panning right wrapped from the end of the current line to the beginning of the next one
	 ⣉ (dots 1,4,7,8): skip identical: line(s) identical to the current one have been skipped
	 ⣿ (dots 1,4,2,5,3,6,7,8): screen edge: vertical navigation hit the top or bottom of the screen without being able to complete
   Alva braille driver changes:
      6.9 broke USB connectivity for Satellite (5nn) and BC (6nn) models.
   BrlAPI braille driver changes:
      Connecting to the current BRLTTY instance is no longer permitted.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      6.9 broke USB connectivity for some models.
   BrlAPI changes:
      Clients are now always presented with the original navigation command.
      The LUA bindings weren't installing on some systems.
   Build changes:
      A message catalog for the Swedish language has been added.
      The matchtest command has been added.
      Building for DOS has been revived.

February 17, 2026:
 - BRLTTY 6.9 released:
   General changes:
      Cursor routing no longer spawns an additional process or thread.
      Soft cursor detection (for applications that use a visual cursor) has been added
      (must be enabled within the Navigation Options submenu).
      Multi-line cursor routing has been fixed.
      A screen driver can now provide full (RGB) color for each character.
      The DESCCHAR command now shows actual color names if RGB is provided.
      Time selectors within the Preferences Menu now adjust by 0.05 (rather than 0.1) seconds.
      Timestamps within the Log Messages submenu now contain their milliseconds component.
      Command line and configuration file parsing errors are now written to the log file.
      Failure to connect to a Bluetooth device no longer spams the log.
      Failure to open a HID device no longer spams the log.
   New braille navigation commands:
      COLOR: Show just the VGA or RGB color of the selected character.
      It's been bound to a long press of a routing key.
      Use this command, rather than DESCCHAR, if you just want to know the color.
   New speech navigation commands:
      SPEAK_CURR_PWRD: Say the current partial word.
      SPEAK_PREV_PWRD: Move to and say the previous partial word.
      SPEAK_NEXT_PWRD: Move to and say the next partial word.
      SPELL_CURR_PWRD: Spell the current partial word.
      SPELL_CURR_LINE: Spell the current line.
      See the laptop and keypad keyboard tables for related binding changes
      (more specifically, see the kp_speak and kp_say keyboard subtables).
   EuroBraille braille driver changes:
      The b.note and b.book models are now supported.
      Missing dependency rules for building the eutp command have been added.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      The Android-specific key bindings now work.
   HIMS braille driver:
      The BrailleSense 6 is now detected properly when using Bluetooth.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      All of the models that support Bluetooth HID are now recognized by Udev.
   Virtual braille driver:
      This driver has been removed.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      Helpful text is now shown for widgets that don't have a text interface.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      Disabling wide character padding now actually works when using a newer kernel.
   Tmux screen driver:
      This is a new screen driver.
      Its two-letter code is tx.
      It supports full (RGB) color.
      The scrollback buffer, choose-tree, and display-menu features aren't supported.
      The brltty-tmux command has been added.
   Speech changes:
      Navigating by partial words has been restored to the original bindings.
      Navigating by full words has been retained with different bindings.
      A command to spell the current line has been added.
      Spelling a word or line now speaks all of the punctuation symbols.
      Autorepeat for navigating by character, word, and line has bee slowed down so it can be heard.
      These selectors have been added to the Speech Options submenu:
         Character Autorepeat Interval: defaults to 0.25 seconds
         Word Autorepeat Interval:      defaults to 0.4 seconds
         Line Autorepeat Interval:      defaults to 0.6 seconds
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.8 (it was 0.8.7).
      Pending braille output is now flushed whenever a client leaves a tty.
      A problem when determining the tty number for a client session has been resolved.
   Text table changes:
      The no-break space - U+00A0 - has been added to en-nabcc as dots 7,8.
   Contraction table changes:
      de-1998 is now deprecated and has been removed.
      de-2015 is now folded into de-g2 and has been removed.
      de-g2 has been updated.
   Linux changes:
      Missing special devices are now created within an isolated file system.
   Windows changes:
      64-bit builds using Msys2 are now supported.
      The speech drivers for the Alva, BrailleLite, and CombiBraille are now included.
   Android changes:
      The targeted API level has been increased to 36 (Android 16).
      The minimum API level has been increased to 27 (Android 8.1).
      The NDK (native development kit) now being used is r27b.
      The new 16-kilobyte page size requirement is now supported.
      The top-level build is now configured for arm 64-bit (rather than for arm 32-bit).
      The edge-to-edge screen rendering model is now supported.
      The DESCCHAR command now includes the character's name.
      The Canute braille driver is now included.
   brltty-pty changes:
      The screen, screen-256color, tmux, and tmux-256color terminal types are now supported.
      The RGB escape sequence - 38;2 - is now supported.
      The bright color escape sequences - 90-97 and 100-107 - are now supported.
   Build Changes:
      Scripts now use the screen's width (rather than assume 72) for help (-h) output.
      The brltty-lscmds command has been renamed to brltty-cmdref.
      brltty-ctb's --reformat-text [-r] option has been fixed and is now documented.
      The brltty-tmux command has been added.
      The cmdtest command has been added.
      The colortest command has been added.
      The all action of the msgtest command has been renamed to list.
      Cross-compiling the Java bindings is now supported.
      The Lua bindings are no longer installed in a local directory unless there's no other alternative.

July 5, 2025:
 - BRLTTY 6.8 released:
   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 current settings are now sent to the server on each connect or reconnect.
   SpeechDispatcher speech driver changes:
      The Address= parameter has been added.
      The Autospawn= parameter has been added.
      The Port= parameter has been removed (use Address= instead).
   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.

October 15, 2024:
 - BRLTTY 6.7 released:
   General changes:
      The -g [--gui-keyboard=] command line option has been added.
      The -G (--gui-keyboard-table) command line option has been added.
      The Speak Empty Line preference (default is yes) has been added.
      The ASPK_EMP_LINE toggle command has been added.
   BrailleMemo braille driver changes:
      The KGS Next Touch models are now supported.
   FreedomScientific braille driver changes:
      Bluetooth service discovery is now used to find the serial channel.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      The Activator Pro models are now supported.
      USB support for the Basic Braille Plus models has been enabled.
   HIMS braille driver changes:
      The eMotion is now supported.
      USB detection of the BrailleSense 6 has been fixed.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      Keyboard input when in graphical mode is now supported.
      Modifying a character with the Left Alt key is now supported.
      The CapsLock key is now supported as a modifier (for Orca's laptop mode).
      Shifted keys have been added to the XT key entry table.
   AtSpi screen driver changes:
      The Enter key is now mapped to the Return key rather than to Keypad Enter.
   FileViewer screen driver changes:
      The show=yes,no parameter has been added.
      Typing any character now beeps as that's invalid on a read-only screen.
      Home/End now go to the start/end of the current line.
      Home/End with the Control modifier now go to the start/end of the file.
   Speech FIFO changes:
      A single write may now contain several packets.
      Packet options for each of the autospeak echo settings have been added.
      A packet option allowing a tune to be written has been added.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.6 (it was 0.8.5).
      Setting a subparameter value has been fixed.
      The BRLAPI_PARAM_DRIVER_PROPERTY_VALUE parameter has been added.
      The WM_COMMAND window manager property is now monitored for changes.
      The --write-window and --write-command options have been added to xbrlapi.
   Key table changes:
      The assignGlobal directive has been added.
   Windows changes:
      The winsetup script now supports the python-location symbolic link.
   Android changes:
      The release version is no longer allowed to upgrade itself.
      Translations for the Ukrainian language have been added.
   Language changes:
      The German contraction table has been updated.
      A message catalog for the Georgian language has been added.

July 22, 2023:
 - BRLTTY 6.6 released:
   General changes:
      The -H (uppercase) option and the concept of hidden options have been removed.
      For consistency (with -A, -B, -S, -X), the -z and -Z short options have been swapped:
	 -z is now --stay-privileged
	 -Z is now --privilege-parameters
      Multi-line contracted braille is now supported.
      The cursor style can now be set to no dots.
      A rectangular append to the clipboard now ensures a leading newline.
      README.CommandReference has been added.
   Speech changes:
      Speech can now be interrupted when writing new text to the input FIFO.
      Autospeak now provides correct character highlighting to the speech driver.
      A word is now a whitespace-delimited (rather than an alphanumeric) sequence of characters.
      Word completion for single-character words now works correctly.
      The ROUTE_SPEECH command (go to the speech cursor) has been added.
      The DESC_CURR_CHAR command now speaks phonetically.
   Preferences Menu changes:
      The PREFRESET command has been added.
      Space + p + Dots 7-8 is bound to the new PREFRESET command.
      If the preferences file can't be found then try loading /etc/brltty/default.prefs.
      Save on Exit now also saves the preferences on program termination.
      The Speak Key Context preference has been added.
      The Speak Modifier Key preference has been added.
   Baum braille driver changes:
      More recent Orbit Reader models have routing keys.
   BrlAPI braille driver changes:
      The speechChanges (no, yes) parameter has been added.
   CombiBraille braille driver changes:
      Upgraded to use generic (rather than direct serial) I/O.
      The routing keys are now supported.
   DotPad braille driver:
      New - its two-letter driver code is dp.
      A multi-line text display is supported within its graphic area.
   Freedom Scientific braille driver changes:
      Minor Focus key binding changes:
	 LeftShift + RoutingKey -> SETLEFT
	 RightShift + RoutingKey -> SWITCHVT
	 LeftSelector + NavrowKey -> PRDIFCHAR
	 RightSelector + NavrowKey -> NXDIFCHAR
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Bluetooth service discovery now needs to be performed (for newer models).
   External Speech speech driver changes:
      The volume and pitch can now be set.
      Now disconnects from the server when a write error or timeout occurs.
      Now tries to reconnect to the server if disconnected.
      Now correctly handles the receipt of tracking data.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      A potential crash on receipt of a cursor routing request has been resolved.
   File Viewer screen driver:
      New. Its two-letter driver code is fv.
      A virtual screen presents the specified file (via its file parameter).
      The height of the screen is the number of lines within the file.
      The width of the screen is the length of the file's longest line.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      A message is shown on the braille display if character injection (TIOCSTI) is disabled.
   Terminal Emulator screen driver:
      New. Its two-letter driver code is em.
      It monitors a shared memory segment maintained by a terminal emulator
      for screen content and size, cursor position, etc.
      It uses a message queue to know when the segment has been updated
      and to send input typed on the braille device to the terminal emulator.
      BRLTTY's provided terminal emulator is the new brltty-pty command (in libexec/brltty/).
      The new brltty-term command runs a shell or terminal manager via brltty-pty,
      and also runs BRLTTY with its Terminal Emulator screen driver to interact with it.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.5 (it was 0.8.4).
      Fuzzing support has been added to the server (see README.APIFuzzing).
      Various fuzzer-detected issues have been resolved.
   Contraction tables:
      The en-ueb-g1 (English, Unified, Grade 1) contraction table has been added.
   Key tables:
      A possible stack overflow during table compilation has been resolved.
      The run directive has been added.
      The macro directive has been added.
      The isolated directive has been added.
      The ktbcheck tool has been added.
   Windows changes:
      The batch scripts have been improved.
      The tasks-brltty.bat script has been added.
      The regquery-brlapi.bat script has been added.
      The build now includes the Debug\ directory, which contains:
         The build's config.h, config.mk, and config.log files.
         Unstripped executables (.exe) and libraries (.dll).

June 9, 2022:
 - BRLTTY 6.5 released:
   General changes:
      Help (-h) output lines are now wrapped at the screen width (not at 79).
      Parameter errors no longer prevent a driver from starting.
      Word Wrap when using contracted braille has been fixed.
      The Quiet setting can now be specified within brltty.conf.
      In data files, \R now represents the Unicode replacement character.
      Chord-6/8 now toggle between 6- and 8-dot computer braille.
      Bindings for the Emacs editor have been added.
      Bindings for the Lua language have been added.
      An Arabic message catalog has been added.
   Logging changes:
      The ingio log category has been renamed to gio.
      The bluetooth log category has been renamed to bt.
      The hid log category has been added.
   Baum braille driver changes:
      The Orbit Reader 40 is now supported.
   Canute braille driver changes:
      Driver startup is now much faster.
      Lines that haven't effectively changed are no longer rewritten.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      An easy way to revert to the legacy thumb key bindings has been added.
      The newer models can now be used via Bluetooth on Linux.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      The WidecharPadding= parameter has been added.
      The FixUnicodeSpaces= parameter has been renamed to RpiSpacesBug=.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      Control characters are now mapped to their corresponding special keys.
      Brltty is now shut down if the driver fails to start.
      The driver no longer crashes when the X server is shut down.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.4 (it was 0.8.3).
      The permissions on local server sockets are now set correctly.
      The cursor is now represented correctly when using six-dot cells.
      Some locking issues have been resolved.
      A text console can now create its own client session.
   Text table changes:
      The Russian (ru) table has been significantly updated.
      The Arabic (ar) table has been significantly updated.
      Typing when using the Arabic (ar) table now yields Arabic (not English) letters.
      The input directive has been added.
   Key table changes:
      The +escaped character modifier has been added.
   Udev changes:
      The rules for customized and generic devices can now be installed separately.
      The device and uinput rules can now be installed separately.
      Filtering is now also done on the manufacturer and product strings.
      Filtering on a parent hub's vendor/product identifiers is now supported.
      A HID rules file has been added.
      Symlinks for USB-connected devices are now in /dev/brltty/.
   Linux changes:
      Bluetooth HID is now supported.
   Windows changes:
      Brltty no longer crashes when started as a service.
   Android changes:
      Now targeting API level 30 and setting isAccessibilityTool.
      The Actions screen now scrolls vertically.
      Settings -> Accessibility -> BRLTTY -> Settings now goes to the Actions screen.
      Arabic string translations have been added.
   Tool changes:
      brltty-clip now has better long options.
      brltty-hid has been added.
      brltty-ttysize has been added.
      xbrlapi now ignores keyboard remapping errors from the X server.
   Build changes:
      The LD, STRIP, and RANLIB commands are no longer hard-coded.

September 24, 2021:
 - BRLTTY 6.4 released:
   General changes:
      Dynamically changing the text table to auto now works.
      The keyboard table can now be explicitly set to off.
      Vertical scrolling for multi-line displays has been improved.
      Trailing whitespace (except for the first one) is now trimmed when pasting.
      The internationalization of date phrases has been improved.
      Emoji using characters like the hash (#) or asterisk (*) are now ignored.
   Sliding braille window changes:
      Cursor tracking always moves the window all the way to the left
      if the whole line is short enough to fit on it.
      Sliding the window triggers when the screen cursor moves to
      (rather than beyond) the first/last cell of the text portion of the display.
   Contracted braille changes:
      Contraction table support can no longer be excluded.
      An internal contraction table can now be configured.
      Contracted braille is automatically enabled on startup if:
         The contraction table has been either specified or automatically selected.
         The text table hasn't been either specified or automatically selected.
      Cursor tracking has been improved.
      Panning left when there are wide characters has been fixed.
      A buffer overrun that occasionally caused a crash has been fixed.
   Preferences menu changes:
      The autospeak settings have been moved into their own submenu.
      Contracted Braille and 6-dot Computer Braille are now configured separately.
      Blinking properties are now configured by period and percent visible
      rather than by visible and invisible times.
      The Space status field type has been added.
      Three-digit status field types have been added.
   New navigation commands:
      SAY_ALL: Speak the entire screen (SAY_ABOVE + SAY_BELOW).
      LOWER and HIGHER: Adjust the speech pitch.
      CONTRACTED: Toggle between contracted (on) and computer (off) braille.
      COMPBRL6: Toggle between six- and eight-dot computer braille.
      Chord-G (Space + dots 1245) is bound to the CONTRACTED toggle.
   Status summary (info line) changes:
      Indicator character changes:
         c: The screen cursor is being rendered.
         s: The speech cursor is being rendered.
         t: Cursor tracking is on.
         u: The attributes underline is being rendered.
	 Braille display content:
	    6: six-dot computer braille
	    8: eight-dot computer braille
	    c: contracted braille
	    a: character attributes
	 Braille keyboard mode:
	    space: typing in text mode
	    b: typing in Unicode braille patterns mode
	    d: keyboard is disabled
      Dot indicator changes:
         Dot5: rendering the attributes underline (was cursor style)
         Dot6: typing Unicode braille patterns (was blinking cursor)
         Dot8: the keyboard is enabled (was sliding window)
      Screen number when on a special screen:
         f: frozen host screen
         h: braille device or keyboard help screen
         m: preferences menu
   New braille devices:
      The NLS eReader from Zoomax.
      The Brailliant BI 20X and 40X from Humanware.
      The Active Braille S from Help Tech.
   FreedomScientific braille driver changes:
      Focus models:
         Many bindings for the front keys have been added.
         Bindings for speech navigation have been added.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Version 1.3 of the Easy Braille's USB-HID firmware is now supported.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      The outer thumb keys now navigate up/down (used to be left/right).
      The inner thumb keys now navigate left/right (used to be up/down).
      Support for firmware version 1.1 of the newer models has been added.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.3 (it was 0.8.2).
      The current braille typing mode is now honoured.
      Typing Unicode braille patterns has been fixed.
      Server termination during initialization no longer hangs.
      New client features:
         Writes can be automatically padded/truncated (use negative region size).
         The thread-safe brlapi_strerror_r() function.
         The brlapi_sync() function.
         The BRLAPI_PARAM_CLIENT_PRIORITY_DISABLE constant.
      Security fixes:
         Use fchmod (not chmod) to adjust local socket permissions.
         The sticky bit is now set on the local sockets directory.
   Contraction table changes:
      Locale-based autoselection (set to auto) is now supported.
      A table for Russian (set to ru) has been added.
      UEB (Unified English Braille) changes:
         The Greek letters have been defined.
         Some math symbols have been added.
         Common accents are now supported - they are the
         acute, cedilla, circumflex, diaeresis, grave, and ring.
   Android changes:
      The four main architectures (arm/x86, 32/64 bits) are now supported.
      BRLTTY is now an app on Google Play.
      The Java BrlAPI client objects are now available via a Maven repository.
      A customized brltty.conf can now be placed in the primary storage area.
      The default contraction table has been changed to auto (from en-us-g2).
      Rules specifying which data files should be backed up have been added.
      Web page rendering changes:
         Widget types are no longer unnecessarily shown.
         Annotations for lists and list items have been added.
         Link annotations no longer contain the link's URL.
      The about application screen now contains:
         BRLTTY's app version.
         The version of the BrlAPI server.
         The date and time of the build.
         The repository revision of the source code.
         A link to BRLTTY's privacy policy.
         The link to BRLTTY's app page on Google Play.
      Emulating F16 now logs the screen to a local file for developer debugging.
   Windows changes:
      The .csv files have been added to the etc/ directory of the archive.
   New command line options:
      --autospeak-threshold=<screen-content-quality>
   Configure changes:
      The --disable-contracted-braille option has been removed.
      The --with-contraction-table option has been added.
      The --without-contraction-table option has been added.

January 28, 2021:
 - BRLTTY 6.3 released:
   Core changes:
      The CLIP_NEW command when performed via a keyboard table no longer crashes.
      Message localization now works on Windows and Android.
      Non-UTF8 consoles on Linux and Windows are now supported.
   Command line option changes:
      --start-message no longer has a short option (was -Y).
      --stop-message no longer has a short option (was -Z).
      --prompt-patterns no longer has a short option (was -z).
      The short option for --privilege-parameters is now -z (was -y).
      The --stay-privileged [-Z] option has been added.
      Setting the unprivileged user to :STAY-PRIVILEGED: is no longer supported.
      The override-preference option has been renamed to override-preferences.
      The --locale-directory option has been added.
   Build changes:
      The Systemd and Udev wrapper scripts are now in libexec/ (not lib/brltty/).
      BRLTTY now has a .pc (pkgconfig) file.
      The revision identifier for the build is now stored within the tarball.
   Systemd changes:
      The brlapi group is created during boot if it doesn't already exist.
   FreedomScientific braille driver changes:
      Focus models: The SETMARK an GOTOMARK commands have been bound.
   XWindow braille driver changes:
      A backspace key has been added.
   SpeechDispatcher speech driver changes:
      The name= parameter has been added.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.2 (it was 0.8.1).
      Some locking issues have been resolved.
   Contraction table changes:
      The cldr directive has been renamed to emoji.
      Emoji translation is no longer applied to (some) non-emoji characters.
      A (rare) problem that could cause an infinite loop has been resolved.
   Developer changes:
      The versioned symbolic link for libbrlapi.so is now created by make api.
      The run-* scripts now work when the build and source trees aren't the same.
      The run-brltty script now uses the message catalogs within the build tree.
      The msgtest command has been added.

December 23, 2020:
 - BRLTTY 6.2 released:
   General changes:
      Problems related to the system waking up from suspend have been resolved.
      The format of the DESCCHAR command's output has been improved.
      The representation of any Unicode braille pattern can now be overridden.
      Prompt patterns no longer fall back to the default algorithm.
      The +route modifier now works for block commands.
      The Scroll-aware Cursor Navigation preference has been added.
      The Start Selection with Routing Key preference has been added.
      The Frank Audiodata braille device is now supported.
      The Java bindings have been significantly enhanced.
   Alva braille driver changes:
      Satellite models:
         The Left/Right pads have been respectively renamed to Speech/Nav.
         The CLIP_COPY and CLIP_APPEND commands have been bound.
   Hedo braille driver changes:
      Detection of The MobilLine model via USB has been improved.
   Seika braille driver changes:
      The left space bar has been remapped to being the Meta (left alt) key.
   XWindow braille driver changes:
      X clipboard support has been added.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      Cursor routing problems have been resolved.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.8.1 (it was 0.8.0).
      A problem with reading raw keycodes has been fixed.
      The server now also listens for localhost connections via IPV6.
      Byte reordering is now done for watched parameter values.
      Setting the computer braille cell size is no longer strict.
      Reading the RENDERED_CELLS parameter now works.
      These have been added for getting the underlying file descriptor:
         brlapi_getFileDescriptor()
         brlapi__getFileDescriptor(handle)
         BRLAPI_INVALID_FILE_DESCRIPTOR
      These parameters have been renamed:
         BRLAPI_PARAM_BOUND_COMMAND_CODES -> BRLAPI_PARAM_BOUND_COMMAND_KEYCODES
         BRLAPI_PARAM_COMMAND_SHORT_NAME  -> BRLAPI_PARAM_COMMAND_KEYCODE_NAME
         BRLAPI_PARAM_COMMAND_LONG_NAME   -> BRLAPI_PARAM_COMMAND_KEYCODE_SUMMARY
         BRLAPI_PARAM_DEVICE_KEY_CODES    -> BRLAPI_PARAM_DEFINED_DRIVER_KEYCODES
         BRLAPI_PARAM_KEY_SHORT_NAME      -> BRLAPI_PARAM_DRIVER_KEYCODE_NAME
         BRLAPI_PARAM_KEY_LONG_NAME       -> BRLAPI_PARAM_DRIVER_KEYCODE_SUMMARY
      And their corresponding parameter types have also been renamed:
         brlapi_param_commandCode_t      -> brlapi_param_commandKeycode_t
         brlapi_param_commandShortName_t -> brlapi_param_commandKeycodeName_t
         brlapi_param_commandLongName_t  -> brlapi_param_commandKeycodeSummary_t
         brlapi_param_keyCode_t          -> brlapi_param_driverKeycode_t
         brlapi_param_keyShortName_t     -> brlapi_param_driverKeycodeName_t
         brlapi_param_keyLongName_t      -> brlapi_param_driverKeycodeSummary_t
   Linux security enhancements:
      BRLTTY can now run as an unprivileged user.
      Some namespaces are now being isolated.
      A system call filter can be enabled.
      The --privilege-parameters command line option has been added.
      The privilege-parameters configuration file directive has been added.
      The --with-privilege-parameters configure option has been added.
      Full details in README.Linux (online at http://brltty.app/doc/Linux.html).
   Android changes:
      Finding user customization files in /sdcard/brltty/ has bee fixed.
      Text selection and host clipboard interactions have been implemented.
      The screen element ordering algorithm has been improved.
      Speech tracking has been implemented.
      Commands for each of the global actions have been added.
      Global actions can now also be performed via chords.
      Global actions for moving to the first/last screen element have been added.
      Navigation among the visible screen windows is now supported.
      A global action to show the window title has been added.
      A global action to show various device status indicators has been added.
      Support for structural web page navigation has been added.
   Systemd management changes:
      The brltty-device@.service instance unit has been added.
      BRLTTY is now run as an unprivileged user with perks.
      The BRLTTY instance is now stopped correctly on USB disconnect.
      A USB device management problem introduced in Systemd 247 has been fixed.
      BRLTTY's needed directories are now created (if necessary).
      The brlapi group is now assumed (e.g. for /etc/brlapi.key ownership).
   Upstart udev rules changes:
      The initctl command (rather than start and stop) is now used.
      The --quiet and --no-wait options are now used.
      The udev rules now restart the job on connect if it's already running.
   Polkit changes:
      Members of the brlapi group are now authorized.
      The rules/actions can now be (un)installed via the Polkit make file.
   Command installation changes:
      The brltty-config script has been renamed to brltty-config.sh.
      The brltty-prologue.sh script is now installed.
      The brltty-genkey script is now installed.

April 6, 2020:
 - BRLTTY 6.1 released:
   New commands:
      REFRESH: rewrite the whole braille display (some drivers).
      REFRESH_LINE: rewrite a specific braille line (some drivers).
      ROUTE_LINE: bring the cursor to a specific braille line.
   New braille drivers:
      Canute: A 40 column, 9 line display from Bristol Braille.
   BrlAPI braille driver changes:
      The version is now 0.8.0 (it was 0.7.0).
      Increase/decrease the client priority based on the screen content quality.
      A quality of "good" overrides Orca rendering - lower ones don't.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Basic Braille Plus models are supported.
      The Easy Braille can be autodetected when using Bluetooth.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      The Brailliant BI 14 can be autodetected when using Bluetooth.
      The routing keys of the Brailliant BI 14 work.
      Four new models are supported:
         HumanWare BrailleOne
         APH Chameleon 20
         APH Mantis Q40
         NLS eReader
   Inceptor (BrailleMe) braille driver changes:
      Cursor positioning has been fixed.
      USB (NVDA mode) autodetection works.
      USB (NVDA mode) key bindings have been rationalized.
      Bluetooth (BrailleBack mode) key bindings have been rationalized.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      The BRLTTY and X clipboards are synchronized.
      Highlighted screen regions are supported.
      When a widget doesn't have text then its accessibility name is rendered.
      Set the screen content quality (for the BrlAPI braille driver) as follows:
         good: terminal widgets
         fair: text widgets (e.g. labels)
         poor: widgets that have descriptive text
         none: widgets that don't have a text interface
      The type= parameter now specifies which widgets override Orca rendering.
      type=default has been added (and is the new default).
      The default is to defer to Orca except for terminal widgets.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      The fallbackText= parameter has been added.
      Cursor routing when there are wide characters has been fixed.
      Cursor positioning when there are wide characters has been fixed.
   BrlAPI changes:
      UTF-8 character encoding is handled internally (no longer needs iconv).
      Large file descriptor numbers no longer cause a client to crash.
      The client and server protocol versions can be increased independently.
      Packets can contain up to 4096 (rather than 512) bytes.
      The brlapi__pause() function can be used to wait for an incoming event.
      A framework for setting, getting, and watching parameters has been added:
         brlapi_getParameterProperties()
         brlapi__getParameter()
         brlapi__getParameterAlloc()
         brlapi__setParameter()
         brlapi__watchParameter()
         brlapi__unwatchParameter()
      The brltty-clip command can be used to get/set the clipboard content.
   xbrlapi changes:
      Now backgrounds after successfully establishing the BrlAPI connection.
      The -n (--no-daemon) option disables backgrounding.
      The BRLTTY and X clipboards are synchronized.
   Text table changes:
      Defining the Unicode replacement character (U+FFFD) works properly.
      The fr-vs table supports the middle dot character.
   Contraction table changes:
      Undefined characters now fall back to their text table representations.
      The en-ueb-g2 table has been updated.
      The zh-tw-ucb table has been removed.
      Renamed French tables:
         fr-integral -> fr-g1
         fr-abrege -> fr-g2
      Renamed German tables:
         de-basis -> de-g0
         de-vollschrift -> de-g1
         de-kurzschrift -> de-g2
         de-kurzschrift-1998 -> de-1998
         de-kurzschrift-2015 -> de-2015
   Linux changes:
      The systemd and udev wrappers are now in /usr/lib/brltty/.
   Android changes:
      The Update Application button on the Actions screen works.
      Routing key #7 presents the Accessibility Actions for a screen element.
   Windows changes:
      A potential BrlAPI client/server communication deadlock has been fixed.
      Some .bat scripts have been renamed:
         install-brltty -> enable-brlapi
         uninstall-brltty -> disable-brlapi
         run-debug -> debug-brltty

February 22, 2019:
 - BRLTTY 6.0 released:
   General changes:
      Chords Dot4 + Dot6 + Dot8/Dot7 turn on/off typing Unicode braille patterns.
      Word wrap when panning to the left now works properly.
      Cursor tracking while word wrap is on has been fixed.
      Support for speaking the current line's indent has been added.
      Vertical screen scroll tracking is now supported.
      Command execution can now be delayed till all the keys have been released.
      Resources are no longer wasted checking non-braille USB devices.
      The eSpeak-NG speech driver has been added.
      BRLTTY can now run within an InitRamFS as a dracut module.
      The -Y [--start-message=] and -Z [--stop-message=] options have been added.
      The prompt-pattern configuration file directive has been added.
   Baum braille driver changes:
      The B2G key bindings have been significantly improved.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Support for the Activator has been added.
      Key bindings now work correctly after returning from the internal mode.
   Hedo braille driver changes:
      Newer MobilLine models are now detected.
   HIMS braille driver changes:
      Shifted qwerty keyboard letters are now interpreted correctly.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      Bluetooth connection problems have been resolved.
      USB session initialization problems have been resolved.
      The BrailleNote Touch routing keys now work.
      The BI 32 joystick now works.
      BI 14 USB detection has been fixed.
   MDV braille driver changes:
      Binding changes have been made so that F10 now does exit the menu.
   ViaVoice speech driver changes:
      The driver has finally been revived.
      Speech tracking has been implemented.
      The configure option --with-viavoice has been removed.
   Linux screen driver changes:
      Full Unicode support is finally available (no more 512 character limit).
      Among many other benefits, Unicode braille patterns now automatically render.
      This capability only works if a 4.19 (or later) kernel is being used.
      The unicode=no driver parameter can be used to revert to the older behaviour.
   AtSpi2 screen driver changes:
      The default is now to only read terminal screens.
      Determining which widget is currently active has been fixed.
      BRLTTY is now automatically stopped when the session is closed.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.7.0 (it was 0.6.7).
      The server now starts immediately rather than when the braille driver starts.
      The following new client functions have been added:
         void brlapi_getLibraryVersion(int *major, int *minor, int *revision)
         void brlapi__setClientData(brlapi_handle_t *handle, void *data)
         void *brlapi__getClientData(brlapi_handle_t *handle)
         int brlapi__readKeyWithTimeout(brlapi_handle_t *handle,
                                        int milliseconds,
                                        brlapi_keyCode_t *code)
      xbrlapi now maps unmapped keysyms to temporary keycodes.
   Text table changes:
      The se (Northern Sami) table has been added.
      New directives: ifGlyph, ifNotGlyph, ifCell, ifNotCell
   Contraction table changes:
      A table for the German 2015 standard [de-kurzschrift-2015] has been added
      (the de-kurzschrift-1998 table should now be used for the 1998 standard).
      New directives: cldr, replace
      The cldr directive has been added to tables for languages that have defined
      annotations: af, de, en, es, fr, ko, nl, pt, sw, th, zu
      (you also need to install your distribution's CLDR annotations package).
   Android changes:
      The Android device is now kept awake while navigating internal screens
      (help, the preferences menu, a frozen screen, etc).
      New braille-friendly widget representations:
         Check Boxes: ⣏ ⣹ (not checked), ⣏⠶⣹ (checked)
         Radio Buttons: ⢎ ⡱ (not selected), ⢎⠶⡱ (selected)
         Switches: ⢸⣭⡇ (off), ⢸⣛⡇ (on)
      A notification showing the braille device and its state has been added.
      Support for the Accessibility button (Android 8 or later) has been added.
      The Actions screen has been added - you can get to it by:
         Global Action #5 (emulate the F5 keyboard key)
         Tapping the (new) notification.
         Clicking the (new) Accessibility button.
      Routing keys beyond an element's text are now associated with that element.
      Routing key #6 now does a context click (for elements that support it).
      The algorithm that decides which elements to render has been much improved.
      The list renderer now orders elements much more sensibly.
      The accuracy of left, right, up, and down navigation has been improved.
      Support for range controls has been added (adjust with the scroll actions).
      Bluetooth connections are no longer tried:
         If the Android device doesn't have a Bluetooth adapter.
         If the Android device's Bluetooth adapter is disabled.
         While the Android device is searching for new Bluetooth devices.

February 5, 2018:
 - BRLTTY 5.6 released:
   General updates:
      BRLTTY has been relicensed to the LGPL (from the GPL).
      Better cursor routing handling of status line updates and vertical scrolling.
      The Track Screen Scroll setting has been added.
      The Word Wrap setting has been added.
      Panning left when using a contraction table now word wraps.
      Typing dismisses an alert message.
      The test for when INFO does text maximization instead has been fixed.
      Overrides are now applied when the preferences haven't yet been saved.
      The Inceptor braille driver (from Innovision) has been added.
   The Baum braille driver:
      On models with B9 and B10 by the joystick, both are interpreted as Space.
      Input packet handling for Pronto! V3 models has been fixed.
   The EuroBraille braille driver:
      Improved autodetection when using Bluetooth.
      The Esytime braille keyboard can be used over Bluetooth and USB.
      For Esytime models, B5 has been renamed to B8.
   The HIMS braille driver:
      The Smart Beetle is now recognized when using Bluetooth.
   The HumanWare braille driver:
      The BrailleNote Touch is recognized when using USB.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.6.7 (it was 0.6.6).
      The brlapi_getModelIdentifier() function has been added to the API.
      The default character set is now based on the user's locale.
      Sessions would occasionally hang when connecting.
      PolKit authentication is no longer attempted when it isn't available.
      Reading raw key codes no longer uses key ranges.
   Text tables:
      The lt (Lithuanian) table has been updated.
      The uk (Ukrainian) table has been added.
   Contraction tables:
      The fr-abrege (French) table has been updated.
      The lt (Lithuanian) table has been added.
      Support has been added for LibLouis tables.
      brltty-ctb's output is now UTF-8 (rather than ASCII).
   Key tables:
      The ifPlatform and ifNotPlatform directives have been added.
   Systemd changes:
      Path (rather than target) units are now used to manage BRLTTY instances.
   Android changes:
      Danish translations have been added.
   Build features:
      Add the reload target to the make files for Systemd and Udev.
      A make file for install/uninstall of the AppStream rules has been added.
      Python 3.6 is supported.

April 18, 2017:
 - BRLTTY 5.5 released:
   General changes:
      The braille and speech banners no longer include the revision identifier.
      The -o (--override-preference=) option has been added.
      quiet-if-no-braille can be specified via the configuration file.
      Cursor routing hangs have been resolved.
      The Log Messages submenu (for warnings and errors) has been added.
      Support for panning within a long alert message has been added.
      Alert beeps work on a Linux serial console.
      The Greek text table has been improved.
   Braille device changes:
      The default is to check both USB and Bluetooth (not just USB).
      Specifying the Bluetooth address is no longer mandatory.
      A prefix of a Bluetooth device's name can be specified.
      A generic USB serial adapter is probed only if it's been customized.
   Baum braille driver changes:
      Support for the Vario Ultra has been improved.
      Support for the Orbit 20 has been added.
   EuroBraille braille driver changes:
      More Esytime bindings have been added.
      Support has been added for the EsysLight 80 and the Esytime Evolution.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Support has been added for the Actilino.
      The rocker keys can be used for efficient navigation of the menu.
      B4+B5 has been bound to Command Learn Mode.
      The (now redundant) keypad binding for Command Learn Mode has been removed.
      The Bluetooth names of the Active Star and the Braillino are recognized.
   HIMS braille driver changes:
      Function key bindings have been added for models with four scroll keys.
   TTY braille driver changes:
      The braille cells are shown (in addition to the text).
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      The Braille Note is autodetected when using USB.
      Support has been added for the Braille Note Touch.
   Polkit changes:
      The policy file is installed.
      The policy has been renamed to org.a11y.brlapi (from org.brltty).
      Initialization doesn't delay BRLTTY startup.
   Systemd changes:
      The default instance is now brltty.target (not brltty.service).
      Multiple instances can be managed (via brltty@.target instances).
      A make file has been added to simplify unit and wrapper installation.
      BRLTTY isn't started until Udev has finished initializing.
      BRLTTY isn't automatically restarted if it terminates cleanly.
   Udev changes:
      A make file has been added to simplify rules and wrapper installation.
   BrlAPI changes:
      The version is now 0.6.6 (it was 0.6.5).
      The server isn't started until the braille driver has started.
      Several small fixes.
   xbrlapi changes:
      The X11 and gdm autostart files are installed.
      Constantly trying to connect when BRLTTY isn't available has been fixed.
      Reconnection on every window change has been fixed.
   Key table changes:
      Common chords for all of the sticky modifier keys have been added.
      Listings combine dot keys, e.g. Dots12 instead of Dot1+Dot2.
   Android changes:
      The cursor no longer jumps back to the start while spaces are being typed.
      Customization files can be in internal storage and/or on the SD card.
   Windows changes:
      Interaction with NVDA has been revived.
      LibUSB can be used on a 64-bit system.
      Builds can be done on MinGW64.
   Build changes:
      AppStream metainfo is maintained and installed.
      The new Speech Dispatcher installation layout is supported.
      Fixes to support building on Solaris 10 and 11 with C99.

June 28, 2016:
 - BRLTTY 5.4 released:
   Core changes:
      The Delayed Cursor Tracking feature (and preference) has been added.
      Stuck keys are now automatically released after a specifiable timeout.
      Touch events no longer interfere with Learn Mode.
      Support for the Polkit authorization manager has been added.
      A couple of memory corruption issues have been resolved.
   USB fixes:
      Device disconnect detection has been improved.
      Excessive CPU consumption for some older serial adapters has been resolved.
   Baum braille driver changes:
      More bindings have been defined for models that have the B11 key.
      False reporting of input timeouts has been resolved.
      Handling of unknown packet types has been improved.
   HandyTech braille driver changes:
      Model detection on Windows has been fixed.
      Output errors now restart the driver.
   HIMS braille driver changes:
      Support for the Smart Beetle has been added.
      Newer firmware resolution of qwerty key code conflicts is supported.
   HumanWare braille driver changes:
      Several USB connection problems have been resolved.
      The newer HID-based USB protocol is supported.
