speechd-el 2.2 released

[Milan Zamazal]

speechd-el 2.2 released
=======================

The Free(b)soft project is pleased to announce speechd-el 2.2.

* What is speechd-el?

  speechd-el is an Emacs client to speech synthesizers, Braille displays
  and other alternative output interfaces.  It provides full speech and
  Braille output environment for Emacs using the Speech Dispatcher and
  BRLTTY backends.  It is focused especially on (but not limited to) the
  blind and visually impaired users.  It allows the user to work with
  Emacs without looking on the screen, by listening to speech output
  produced by the speech synthesizers supported in Speech Dispatcher and
  watching Braille output on Braille displays supported by BRLTTY.
  
  Key speechd-el features are:

  - Speech output and Braille input/output.
  
  - Automated "intelligent" reading of most Emacs messages and actions.
    Additional commands for explicit reading.

  - Message priorities, voice parameter changes, sound icons and other
    features provided by Speech Dispatcher.

  - Multilingual support.
    
  - Almost no change of the standard Emacs behavior, no interference
    with user settings.
  
  - Highly configurable.

  - Possibility to add support for other alternative output methods.

  - Elisp libraries for generic speech, Braille and other kinds of
    output as well as for alternative user interface programming.

  - Small code size.

  - Free Software, distributed under the GPL.

  More information about speechd-el (including comparison with
  Emacspeak) can be found on its web page, see
  http://www.freebsoft.org/speechd-el .

* What is new in the 2.2 version?

  - Support for new BrlAPI protocol introduced in BRLTTY 3.8.

  - New BRLTTY key handler for general character input.

  - New command speechd-set-synthesizer-voice to select synthesizer
    voices directly.

  - Moved to GPL3.

  See the NEWS file for more details.

* Where to get it?
  
  You can get the distribution tarball of the released version from
  http://www.freebsoft.org/pub/projects/speechd-el/speechd-el-2.2.tar.gz .

  The home page of the project is http://www.freebsoft.org/speechd-el .