NEWS.md

v4.0.0rc2 (2023-09-28)

Features

Core

• Added a configurable delay between key presses, to accommodate applications that can't handle fast keyboard emulation. (#1633)

Bugfixes

Core

• Closes serial ports upon disconnection to ensure clean reconnections. (#1636)

User Interface

• Update the tray icon to "disconnected" when a serial-over-USB machine is unplugged. (#1560)

API

Breaking Changes

• Dropped support for Python 3.7. (#1634)

New

• Introduces the GenericKeyboardEmulation interface which automatically handles output delay. (#1633)

v4.0.0rc1 (2023-09-26)

Features

Core

• updated config to use tox4 (#1592)
• Implement first-up chord send for keyboard machine. (#1611)

User Interface

• Added Traditional Chinese (zh-TW) translation. (#1404)

Linux

• Update GitHub Actions from Ubuntu 18.04 to 22.04. (#1597)

macOS

• Update GitHub Actions from macOS 10.15 to 12. (#1598)
• Changes the Plover icon on macOS to match Big Sur-style icons. (#1632)

Windows

• Update GitHub Actions from Windows 2019 to 2022. (#1598)

Bugfixes

User Interface

• Fix "add translation" dialog ignoring the stylesheet's background color for the translation and stroke text. (#1571)

Windows

• Fixed an issue which caused tests to fail on windows due to case sensitive filepaths. (#1599)

API

No significant changes.

v4.0.0.dev12 (2022-08-09)

Features

User Interface

• Show detailed information about each available serial port in the machine configuration dialog. (#1510)
• Add support for styling the Qt GUI: automatically load and apply a custom stylesheet from plover.qss (in the configuration directory) when present. (#1514)
• Capture and log Qt messages. (#1534)
• Change the paper tape / suggestions widget selection mode to "extended" (allow selecting multiple items, support shift/control), and allow copying the current selection to clipboard using the standard copy shortcut. (#1539)

Linux

• Use /dev/serial/by-id/xxxx links for each available serial port in the machine configuration dialog. (#1510)

Bugfixes

Core

• Fix possible exception when calling Engine.clear_translator_state(undo=True). (#1547)

User Interface

• Fix "add translation" dialog "Ok" button not being enabled when the strokes field is automatically populated from the latest untranslate. (#1527)
• Fix {PLOVER:ADD_TRANSLATION} implementation when using the headless GUI (-g none). (#1546)

Linux

• Fix fallback to Qt if the D-Bus log handler cannot be initialized. (#1545)

Windows

• Fix some key combinations being sent incorrectly. (#1274)

API

Breaking Changes

• Drop support for Python 3.6. (#1538)

v4.0.0.dev11 (2022-05-15)

Features

Core

• Switch to plover_stroke for better steno handling: faster and stricter. (#1362, #1417, #1452)
• New faster and improved RTF/CRE parser. (#1364, #1365)
• Correctly handle formatting currency with thousands separator(s): 23,000.15{:retro_currency:$c} => $23,000.15. (#1391)
• Improve “English stenotype” system compatibility with RTF/CRE spec: support arbitrary placement of the number sign when parsing steno (e.g. 18#, #18, and 1#8 are all valid and equivalent). (#1491)
• Improve translation stage: cut down on unnecessary / duplicate dictionary lookups. (#1513)

User Interface

• Improve accessibility:
  • Disable tab-key navigation in tables, so focusing a table does not lock global tab-key navigation to it.
  • Remove some container widgets, tweak focus rules to avoid extra unnecessary steps when using tab-key navigation (like selecting the dictionaries widget outer frame).
  • In form layouts, link each widget to its label (like each option in the configuration dialog).
  • Set the accessible name / description of focusable widgets.
  • Use lists for the dictionaries widget, suggestions widget, and the paper tape. (#1308, #1332, #1434, #1451)
• Show a message when hiding to tray. (#1333)
• Improved steno handling:
  • validate inputs in the "add translation" dialog and dictionary editor
  • sort on steno order in the dictionary editor, and signal invalid steno entries (#1362, #1501)

Linux

• Improve D-Bus logger implementation. (#1496)
• Add WM_CLASS property to windows (WM_CLASS(STRING) = "plover", "Plover"). (#1498)

Bugfixes

Core

• New reworked RTF/CRE support:
  • correctly handle multi-lines mappings
  • detect syntax errors (with recovery)
  • use \n\n for new paragraphs (instead of non-undoable {#Return}{#Returns})
  • similarly, use \t and \n for \tab and \line
  • correctly escape {}\ on save
  • use custom ignored groups for Plover macros and metas
  • use groups to improve round-tripping affixes (so there's no ambiguity when parsing back, e.g. {^in^}fix -> {\cxds in \cxds}fix instead of \cxds in\cxds fix) (#1364, #1365)
• Fixed a memory leak on reloading externally modified dictionaries. (#1375)
• Do not discard existing filters on dictionaries reload. (#1388)
• Fix engine's running state: make sure the translator' state is empty when enabling output for the first time. (#1504)
• Fix exit handlers not getting always executed. (#1507)
• Fix StenoDictionaryCollection.longest_key implementation: ignore disabled dictionaries! (#1512)

Dictionaries

• Fix KHR*PB stroke to not be misinterpreted as a command. (#1463)

User Interface

• Speedup dictionary editor startup (avoid duplicate sort). (#1351)
• Updated Spanish translation. (#1420)
• Updated French translation. (#1422)
• Speedup suggestions widget implementation: should noticeably improve performance when there's a large scrollback. (#1481)

Windows

• Drop launch option from installer's final page: avoid possible issues (e.g. permission errors with the controller's pipe) because Plover was run as admin. (#1495)
• Fix notifications behavior: no persistent duplicated icons (one for each notification). (#1507, #1508)

API

Breaking Changes

• The custom test command implementation provided by plover_build_utils.setup.Test has been removed:
  • support for it on setuptools' side has been deprecated since version 41.5.0
  • the custom handling of arguments conflicts with the use of some pytest options (e.g. -m MARKEXPR)
  • the workaround for pytest cache handling is not necessary anymore (#1332)
• The steno helpers (Stroke class, normalize_stroke, …) now raise a ValueError exception in case of invalid steno. (#1362, #1501)
• The support for StenoDictionary and StenoDictionaryCollection longest key callbacks is gone, use the longest_key properties instead. (#1375)

v4.0.0.dev10 (2021-06-19)

Features

Core

• Change behavior when launching Plover and an existing instance is already running: send a focus command to the existing instance (to show, raise, and focus the main window). Additionally, a new plover_send_command executable/script can be used to send other commands. (#1284)
• Add FreeBSD/OpenBSD support. (#1306)

Linux

• The oldest Ubuntu LTS release supported by the AppImage is now Ubuntu Bionic (18.04). (#1329)

Bugfixes

Core

• Fix 2 corner cases when handling dictionaries:
  • If the class implementation is marked as read-only, then loading from a writable file should still result in a read-only dictionary.
  • Don't allow clear on a read-only dictionary. (#1302)
• Don't try to start missing extensions. (#1313)

User Interface

• Correctly restore a window if it was minimized: fix the focus command, and activating a tool window. (#1314)

API

Breaking Changes

• The Engine constructor now takes an additional parameter: the controller. (#1284)

New

• Add some new helpers to plover_build_utils.testing:
  • dictionary_test: torture tests for dictionary implementations.
  • make_dict: create a temporary dictionary.
  • parametrize: parametrize helper for tracking test data source line numbers. (#1302)

v4.0.0.dev9 (2021-04-22)

Features

Core

• A new SET_CONFIG command can be used to change the configuration with a stroke, e.g.:

  "O*EP": "{PLOVER:SET_CONFIG:'translation_frame_opacity':100}",
  "TR*PB": "{PLOVER:SET_CONFIG:'translation_frame_opacity':0}",

  to change the opacity of the "Add Translation" dialog on the fly. (#989)
• Speed up loading dictionaries. (#1022)
• Be more restrictive with macro names: only accept valid identifier, so for example == is not handled like a macro anymore. (#1025)
• Ignore case when processing builtin commands / metas. (#1069)
• Add user friendly names for built-in metas, e.g.: {:retro_case:cap_first_word}, {:retro_currency:$c}, {:attach:attach^}, etc... (#1069)
• Improve orthography rules. (#1092, #1212)
• The configuration is now automatically saved on change, rather than on exit. (#1123)
• Add prefix strokes (syntax /STROKE) that will only translate if they are at the beginning of a word. Word endings can be specified with {:word_end} or {$}. (#1157)
• Add support for conditional formatting (based on the text following a translation): {=REGEXP/TRANSLATION_IF_FOLLOWING_TEXT_MATCH/TRANSLATION_IF_NOT} or {:if_next_matches:REGEXP/TRANSLATION_IF_FOLLOWING_TEXT_MATCH/TRANSLATION_IF_NOT}. (#1158)

User Interface

• Add menu entry for opening the configuration directory ("File" => "Open config folder"). (#981)
• Automatically focus the input field and pre-select the previous input when the lookup window is activated. (#1009)
• Improve the configuration dialog for serial machines: automatically scan available ports and default to the first one. (#1036)
• The "Add translation" stroke lookup now returns entries for all enabled dictionaries and is debounced to improve performance. (#1084)
• Added translation into Spanish. (#1165)
• A new command, {PLOVER:SUGGESTIONS}, is available to open the suggestions window with a steno stroke. (#1184)
• Add support for saving dictionaries:
  • save a copy of each selected dictionary
  • merge the selected dictionaries into a new one
  • both operations support converting to another format (#1244)
• Added translation into Dutch. (#1264)
• Added Italian translation. (#1268)

Linux

• The distribution Python is now built with optimization. (#1068)
• Expand the list of supported key names in key combos to include non-US specific keys (like ISO_Level3_Shift). (#1082)
• The default configuration directory on Linux is now ~/.config/plover (~/.local/share/plover is still supported for backward compatibility). (#1123)

macOS

• The minimum version supported by the macOS bundle is now 10.13 (High Sierra). (#1156)

Windows

• The distribution is now 64bits. (#1023)

Bugfixes

Core

• Fix retrospective insert space macro when the previous translation involved suffix keys. (#995)
• Fix updating a dictionary mapping: ensure reverse lookups data stays consistent. (#1022)
• Fix keymap validation: properly fallback to default keymap when invalid. (#1065)
• Fix lookups by translation: do not ignore lower priority dictionaries when a match is found in a higher priority one. (#1066)
• Fix wordlist support for system plugins: try loading from the system dictionaries root (and not Plover assets directory). (#1116)
• Configuration save operations are now atomic. (#1123)
• Fix forced lowercasing of all engine command arguments. (#1139)
• Fix implicit hyphen handling with numbers only strokes on some theories (e.g. Melani). (#1159)
• Fix unbounded memory use in the lookup functions used by the Suggestions window. (#1188)

Dictionaries

• Fix a number of invalid entries in the main dictionary. (#1038)
• Tweak orthographic rules so "reduce/{^ability}" result in "reducibility" instead of "reducability". (#1096)

User Interface

• Fix a possible crash on close when opening a read-only dictionary in the editor. (#897)
• Fix possible crash when changing machine parameters in the configuration dialog. (#1041)
• Fix internationalization of machine types in the configuration dialog. (#1061)
• Fix tools shortcuts. (#1062)
• Fix crashes due to GUI exceptions reaching the event loop. (#1135)
• Fix an exception caused by an incorrect assertion that would prevent enabling and disabling extension plugins if they weren't on the first row. (#1171)
• Fix changes to the list of enabled extension plugins not being saved to the configuration file. (#1230)
• Fix missing translations. (#1248)

Linux

• Fix output capitalization issue. (#1153)
• Fix a race condition that may freeze Plover while toggling with keyboard input machine. (#1163)

macOS

• Fix an issue where permissions had to be granted to "env" on macOS Catalina 10.15. (#1152)
• Mac notifications no longer have "Plover" as their title. (#1271)

Windows

• Fix Unicode characters output. (#991)
• Fix installer's icon. (#1027)

API

Breaking Changes

• StenoDictionaryCollection.casereverse_lookup now returns a set (instead of a list). (#1066)
• The API for providing i18n support as been changed: see doc/i18n.md for more information. (#1258)

New

• plover_build_utils.setup now provides a new babel_options helper for configuring Babel for i18n support. (#1258)

v4.0.0.dev8+66.g685bd33 (2018-07-02)

Features

Dictionaries

• Use AOE instead of E for prefix "e". (#951)
• Quality of Life changes/additions to the dictionaries. (#959, #960)

User Interface

• Add tooltips to dictionary status icons. (#962)

Bugfixes

Core

• Fix issues when output is set to "Spaces After". (#965)

macOS

• Fix portable mode. (#932)

Windows

• Add missing C++ redistributable DLL to the installer. (#957)
• Fix emoji output. (#942)