[SUE-list] Newsletter October 2009

[Ramona B. <bu...@it...>]

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* SUE Newsletter October 2009 *
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SUE is short for Screenreader & Usability Extensions, an effort to make
screen reading on Linux more usable. SUE is based on the former Linux
Screen Reader (LSR), an excellent platform for all kinds of assistive
applications. SUE itself is the first of those assistive applications,
namely a screen reader for graphical user interfaces on the GNOME
desktop.

SUE is available either from SVN trunk or in version 0.5.0 from our
download section at Sourceforge.net. Documentation including
installation instructions may also be found at
http://sue.sourceforge.net.


* News:
*******

* Version 0.6.0
The new version includes massive changes in the way SUE processes
speech. Things do not run smoothly yet and installation is a bit tricky,
so we're asking you to not update from trunk right now. We hope to fix
issues and provide complete installation instructions until the end of
the month.
If you still want to check out SUE from the trunk, please use revision
893: svn co -r983 https://sue.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/sue/trunk sue

* General
. Upon deleting text, you may now decide whether you would like to hear
the deleted part of the text or the remaining character that would be
deleted next. This may be chosen seperately for the DEL key and the
backspace key.
. Some widgets have more than one label to describe it. These labels are
now output in the correct order, especially if there is a label after
the widget as in 'pick up e-mail every [number] minutes'.

* Speech
Speech processing in SUE has been refactored to use Speech Dispatcher
and PulseAudio. Different message categories have been implemented and
may be assigned to different tts-systems with separate voices, pitches,
speeds, and volumes. This way, the voice used for a message already
provides information on the type of message and where it comes from.
However, some speech-related issues remain and installation is a bit
tricky. Hopefully until the end of this month those issues are resolved
and we are able to provide proper installation instructions. Until then,
we kindly ask you to use revision 983 or version 0.5.0 as indicated
above.

* Braille
The Braille display now ìndicates selected text using dots 7 and 8.

* Evolution
. The "find first unread e-mail" key command (Alt+CapsLock+g) now
provides even more functionality: It now cycles through unread e-mails,
meaning it will jump to the next unread e-mail until it reaches the end
of the list. From here it starts again at the beginning.
. SUE announces new e-mail messages as well as unsent e-mails.
. SUE now supports text selection in e-mails.
. SUE reads the number of search results in the categories calendars,
tasks and memos.
. Overall performance of SUE in Evolution is much better now.

* OpenOffice.org Calc
SUE now indicates in speech and Braille whether a table cell contains a
formula ('formula' is presented in Braille and speech).

* Internationalization
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers, SUE is now available in English,
German, Hungarian, Romanian, Swedish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and
Czech. Way to go!


* Bugfixes:
***********

Bug: Some shortcuts in SUE provide more than one functionality if
pressed more than once. This was broken and needed to be fixed.

Bug: SUE did not speak when a text was unselected. This problem is
fixed.

Bug: Inserting characters in a simple text line was not read. SUE
received the wrong point of regard and could not interpret the action
correctly. This is now fixed.

Bug 2860703: In GCalc SUE did not read negative results correctly. This
works now.

Bug: In OpenOffice.org the window title was not read when the
application received focus again. Also the currently focused part of the
document was not shown. The output is now as it should be.

Bug: When selecting lines of text in OpenOffice.org Writer the Braille
device sometimes only showed a blank line. The problem was solved.

Bug: E-Mail quotation in Evolution is again read in a different voice.

Bug: "read the e-mail content" (Alt+CapsLock+c) and "save all
attechments" (Alt+CapsLock+b) work again from the e-mail list.

Bug: Some headings in the Evolution setup and account assistants were
not read. This problem is now fixed.


* Current work:
***************

. Firefox support remains an important issue on our list. Stay tuned.
. Issues with our new speech support are about to be fixed and new
installation instructions will soon be provided.
. Right now we are doing extensive tests on SUE to fix as many problems
as possible.
. The documentation updates continue both in the German and the English
wiki. The document manager at our SourceForge.net site will be removed
by SF.net, so all documentation (in English) will move to the wiki.

If you are interested in testing SUE but experience problems at any
point, please don't hesitate to send a message to this mailing list.
If you find a bug, you may add it to our bug tracker on SourceForge.net
or send an e-mail with your bug description to
sue...@it.... A few notes on how to submit a bug in
either of those ways and which information to include are available on
both our project wiki at http://www.sue-projekt.de (in German) and our
documentation page at SourceForge.net (in English). To request a
feature, you may use the same
means of communication.

Thanks a lot for your tests, comments, and feedback!

The SUE team