[Blindtlk] NVDA 0.5 released! (fwd)

[David Andrews]

>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 14:39:20 +1000
>From: Michael Curran <mick at kulgan.net>
>Subject: [nvda] NVDA 0.5 released!
>
>Hellow all,
>
>Today we finally released NVDA version 0.5.
>
>NVDA is a free and open source screen reader for the Windows Operating System.
>
>Please visit www.nvda-project.org to find out more or to download a copy.
>
>It has been two and a half months since release 
>r425, and many new features have been added, and many bugs fixed.
>
>NVDA now comes with its own talking installer, 
>which allows you to install NVDA with out the 
>use of another screen reader, or sighted assistance.
>
>NVDA has been translated in to many more 
>languages now, which brings the number of 
>languages up to 13. The languages NVDA now supports are:
>English, French, Portuguese, Brizillian 
>Portuguese, Spanish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, 
>Italian, Slovak, Traditional Chinese, Swedish and Czech.
>
>NVDA now supports SAPI4, but most importantly 
>now comes with the eSpeak synthesizer built in 
>to NVDA itself. This means that NVDA can now be 
>used on any Windows 2000/xp/Vista computer, that 
>may not necessarily have SAPI4/SAPI5 installed. 
>eSpeak supports over twenty languages, and is very lite-weight and responsive.
>
>A big thank you to all the contributers of NVDA 
>for making this release possible.
>
>Following are all the changes since r425:
>
>Whatès New in NVDA
>
>Changes since r425:
>*NVDA now has a built-in synthesizer called 
>eSpeak, developed by Jonathan Duddington.
>It is very responsive and lite-weight, and has 
>support for many different languages. Sapi 
>synthesizers can still be used, but eSpeak will be used by default.
>eSpeak does not depend on any special software 
>to be installed, so it can be used with NVDA on 
>any computer, on a USB thumb drive, or anywhere.
>For more info on eSpeak, or to find other versions, go to
>http://espeak.sourceforge.net/.
>*NVDA now uses the built-in eSpeak synthesizer by default.
>*the built-in eSpeak synthesizer will now start 
>in the language NVDA is set to, unless another 
>voice has previously been chosen.
>*Fix bug where the wrong character was being 
>announced when pressing delete in Internet 
>Explorer / Outlook Express editable panes.
>*Added support for more edit fields in Skype.
>*VirtualBuffers only get loaded when focus is on 
>the window that needs to be loaded. This fixes 
>some problems when the preview pane is turned on in Outlook Express.
>*Added commandline arguments to NVDA:
>-m, --minimal: do not play startup/exit sounds 
>and do not show the interface on startup if set to do so.
>-q, --quit: quit any other already running instance of NVDA and then exit
>-s, --stderr-file fileName: specify where NVDA 
>should place uncaught errors and exceptions
>-d, --debug-file fileName: specify where NVDA should place debug messages
>-c, --config-file: specify an alternative configuration file
>-h, -help: show a help message listing commandline arguments
>*Fixed bug where punctuation symbols would not 
>be translated to the appropriate language, when 
>using a language other than english, and when 
>speak typed characters was turned on.
>*Added Slovak language files thanks to Peter Vagner
>*Added a Virtual Buffer settings dialog and a 
>Document Formatting settings dialog, from Peter Vagner.
>*Added French translation thanks to Michel Such
>*Added a script to toggle beeping of progress 
>bars on and off (insert+u). Contributed by Peter Vagner.
>*Made more messages in NVDA be translatable for 
>other languages. This includes script descriptions when in keyboard help.
>*Added a find dialog to the virtualBuffers 
>(internet Explorer and Firefox). Pressing 
>control+f when on a page brings up a dialog in 
>which you can type some text to find. Pressing 
>enter will then search for this text and place 
>the virtualBuffer cursor on this line. Pressing 
>f3 will also search for the next occurance of the text.
>*When speak typed characters is turned on, more 
>characters should be now spoken. Technically, 
>now ascii characters from 32 to 255 can now be spoken.
>*Renamed some control types for better 
>readability. Editable text is now edit, outline 
>is now tree view and push button is now button.
>*When arrowing around list items in a list, or 
>tree view items in a tree view, the control type 
>(list item, tree view item) is no longer spoken, to speed up navigation.
>*Has Popup (to indicate that a menu has a submenu) is now spoken as submenu.
>*Where some language use control and alt (or 
>altGR) to enter a special character, NVDA now 
>will speak these characters when speak typed characters is on.
>*Fixed some problems with reviewing static text controls.
>*Added Translation for Traditional Chinese, thanks to Coscell Kao.
>*Re-structured an important part of the NVDA 
>code, which should now fix many issues with 
>NVDA's user interface (including settings dialogs).
>*Added Sapi4 support to NVDA. Currently there 
>are two sapi4 drivers, one based on code 
>contributed by Serotek Corporation, and one 
>using the ActiveVoice.ActiveVoice com Interface. 
>Both these drivers have issues, see which one works best for you.
>*Now when trying to run a new copy of NVDA while 
>an older copy is still running will cause the 
>new copy to just exit. This fixes a major 
>problem where running multiple copies of NVDA makes your system very unusable.
>*Renamed the title of the NVDA user interface from NVDA Interface to NVDA.
>*Fixed a bug in Outlook Express where pressing 
>backspace at the start of an editable message would cause an error.
>*Added patch from Rui Batista that adds a script 
>to report the current battery status on laptops (insert+shift+b).
>*Added a synth driver called Silence. This is a 
>synth driver that does not speak anything, 
>allowing NVDA to stay completely silent at all 
>times. Eventually this could be used along with 
>Braille support, when we have it.
>*Added capitalPitchChange setting for synthesizers thanks to J.J. Meddaugh
>*Added patch from J.J. Meddaugh that makes the 
>toggle report objects under mouse script more 
>like the other toggle scripts (saying on/off 
>rather than changing the whole statement).
>*Added spanish translation (es) contributed by Juan C. buo.
>*Added Hungarian language file from Tamas Gczy.
>*Added Portuguese language file from Rui Batista.
>*Changing the voice in the voice settings dialog 
>now sets the rate, pitch and volume sliders to 
>the new values according to the synthesizer, 
>rather than forcing the synthesizer to be set to 
>the old values. This fixes issues where a synth 
>like eloquence or viavoice seems to speek at a 
>much faster rate than all other synths.
>*Fixed a bug where either speech would stop, or 
>NVDA would entirely crash, when in a Dos console window.
>*If support for a particular language exists, 
>NVDA now automatically can show its interface 
>and speak its messages in the language Windows 
>is set to. A particular language can still be 
>chosen manualy from the user interface settings dialog as well.
>*Added script 
>'toggleReportDynamicContentChanges' (insert+5). 
>This toggles whether new text, or other dynamic 
>changes should be automatically announced. So 
>far this only works in Dos Console Windows.
>*Added script 'toggleCaretMovesReviewCursor' 
>(insert+6). This toggles whether the review 
>cursor should be automatically repositioned when 
>the system caret moves. This is useful in Dos 
>console windows when trying to read information as the screen is updating.
>*Added script 'toggleFocusMovesNavigatorObject' 
>(insert+7). This toggles whether the navigator 
>object is repositioned on the object with focus as it changes.
>*Added some documentation translated in to 
>various languages. So far there is French, Spannish and Finish.
>*Removed some developer documentation from the 
>binary distribution of NVDA, it is only now in the source version.
>*Fixed a possible bug in Windows Live Messanger 
>and MSN Messenger where arrowing up and down the 
>contact list would cause errors.
>*New messages are now automatically spoken when 
>in a conversation using Windows Live Messenger. 
>(only works for English versions so far)
>*The history window in a Windows Live Messenger 
>conversation can now be read by using the arrow 
>keys. (Only works for English versions so far)
>*Added script 'passNextKeyThrough' (insert+f2). 
>Press this key, and then the next key pressed 
>will be passed straight through to Windows. This 
>is useful if you have to press a certain key in 
>an application but NVDA uses that key for something else.
>*NVDA no longer freezes up for more than a 
>minute when opening very large documents in MS Word.
>*Fixed a bug where moving out of a table in MS 
>Word, and then moving back in, caused the 
>current row/column numbers not to be spoken if 
>moving back in to exactly the same cell.
>*Increasing and decreasing rate scripts can no 
>longer take the rate above 100 or below 0.
>*If there is an error with a language when 
>choosing it in the User Interface Settings 
>dialog, a message box will alert the user to the fact.
>*NVDA now asks if it should save configuration 
>and restart if the user has just changed the 
>language in the User Interface Settings Dialog.
>NVDA must be restarted for the language change to fully take effect.
>*If a synthesizer can not be loaded, when 
>choosing it from the synthesizer dialog, a 
>message box alerts the user to the fact.
>*When loading a synthesizer for the first time, 
>NVDA lets the synthesizer choose the most 
>suitable voice, rate and pitch parameters, 
>rather than forcing it to defaults it thinks are ok.
>This fixes a problem where Eloquence and 
>Viavoice sapi4 synths start speaking way too fast for the first time.
>
>Mick
>
>
>
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>Thank you for your continued support of 
>Nonvisual Desktop Access, an open source free 
>screen reader for Microsoft Windows:
>http://www.nvda-project.org/
>To get the latest NVDA snapshot:
>http://www.nvda-project.org/snapshots/
>Report bugs or make feature requests at:
>http://trac.nvda-project.org/
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David Andrews and white cane Harry.