BrlAPI Reference manual

Sébastien Hinderer <Sebastien.Hinderer@ens-lyon.org>

Samuel Thibault <Samuel.Thibault@ens-lyon.org>

1. Introduction

• 1.1 Concepts
• 1.2 How to read this manual

2. General description of BrlAPI

• 2.1 Historical notes.
• 2.2 Why BrlAPI is part of brltty.
• 2.3 How it works.

3. Concurrency management between BrlAPI clients

• 3.1 VT switching
• 3.2 A pile of "paper sheets" Let's look at VT 2 by itself. What is shown on the braille display can be seen as the result of a pile of two paper sheets. brltty is represented by the bottom sheet on which its screen reading is written, and client A by the top sheet on which its output is written. A's sheet hence "covers" brltty's sheet: A's output "mask" brltty's screen reading.
• 3.3 Hierarchy
• 3.4 The X-window case
• 3.5 Detaching

4. Installation and configuration of BrlAPI

5. Library description

• 5.1 Connecting to BrlAPI
• 5.2 Getting driver id and name
• 5.3 Getting display size
• 5.4 Entering raw mode, immediately leaving raw mode.
• 5.5 Getting tty control
• 5.6 Writing something on the display
• 5.7 Waiting for a key press
• 5.8 Leaving tty control
• 5.9 Disconnecting from BrlAPI
• 5.10 Putting everything together...

6. Writing (BrlAPI-compliant) drivers for brltty

• 6.1 Overview of the driver's structure
• 6.2 Basic driver structure
• 6.3 Enhancements for BrlAPI

7. Protocol reference

• 7.1 Reliable packet transmission channel
• 7.2 Responses from the server
• 7.3 Operating modes
• 7.4 Details for each type of packet