On Wed, 9 Dec 2015, Rob wrote:
> What is the history of Brltty? I have to admit, it is an indispensable
> tool in my arsenal, but how did it all get started to end up as the
> wonderful program it is today?
It all started in 1995 with Nikhil Nair and James Bowde, two students at
the University of Cambridge, UK. Nikhil was blind and wanted a native
solution for using his CombiBraille with Linux. The oldest BRLTTY
release announcement I could find is for version 0.22 Beta in the
December 1st 1995 edition of Linux Journal (meaning that BRLTTY is 20
years old this month):
http://m.linuxjournal.com/article/2872
I was already a big Linux fan at the time. To be able to access a Linux
computer, I needed a second computer running DOS and the proprietary
software to drive my Alva BC340, and use that second computer with a
terminal emulator to access the Linux computer via a serial cable.
Linux was already quite capable back then, especially for accessing the
burgeoning Internet with a 14400 baud modem over a traditional phone
line (and that was fast!). That's how I stumbled across the first
BRLTTY announcement. That was so cool I couldn't resist downloading the
code and start tinkering with it. Then the process of
reverse-engineering the communication protocol for my Alva started.
Eventually (i.e. after some long nights) I had it figured out and I
wrote the second BRLTTY driver.
I was so excited about being able to use the native Linux console
directly that I had to share this with someone else who could appreciate
this accomplishment. In other words that someone else had to be another
computer geek who happened to be blind as well. That's how I ended up
inviting Stéphane Doyon on a whim, whom I had never met before, to come
to my place for some hacking session on his own braille display.
Equipped with two computers and one already functional braille display,
we were able to reverse-engineer the communication protocol for his TSI
Navigator in only one day of work. The third BRLTTY driver was born.
We submitted our drivers to the BRLTTY maintainer and a strong
collaboration between Nikhil, Stéphane and myself ensued to improve the
BRLTTY core code. Eventually, version 1.0 was released:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/blinux-list/1996-August/msg00031.html
A few months later, BRLTTY gained its initial speech support and version
1.0.1 was released:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/blinux-list/1996-September/msg00007.html
In early 1998, Nikhil couldn't dedicate as much time to BRLTTY and
that's when I took over the maintainer role. That corresponds to BRLTTY
version 1.9.0.
Then, several people started contributing to the project. Many of them
are still following this mailing list. Notably, a certain Dave Mielke
whose contributions were significant.
Fast forward to 2001 or 25 BRLTTY releases later, I was short of enough
free time to properly maintain the project. Given that BRLTTY already
did all that I needed, it is possible that my motivation also dropped a
little. It was time for another maintainership transition. That's when
Dave stepped up to the plate. And Dave's dedication to BRLTTY really
brought it to another level of refinement. And 15 years later Dave is
still running the show.
> As a side note, how many of us use
> Brltty as our sole means of navigating in Linux?
Count me in. Since early 1996.
Nicolas
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