fix: stop reading deprecated braille module aliases

[serrebidev]

Problem

NVDA split the flat braille and brailleInput namespaces into sub-modules and left deprecated aliases behind. Every read of an alias goes through the utils._deprecate module __getattr__, which logs a WARNING and a full stack trace.

Braille Essentials reads those names 167 times across 12 modules, so start-up alone produces around 50 of these, and more arrive on braille updates:

WARNING - utils._deprecate.module_getattr:
braille.TextInfoRegion is deprecated. Use braille.regions.textInfo.TextInfoRegion instead.
Stack trace:
  ...
  File "...\addons\brailleEssentials\globalPlugins\brailleEssentials\patches.py", line 117, in _saveOriginals
    o["TextInfoRegion._addTextWithFields"] = braille.TextInfoRegion._addTextWithFields

Observed on NVDA alpha-57522 (Python 3.13) with add-on 26.08.

The names involved: Region, TextRegion, TextInfoRegion, NVDAObjectRegion, NVDAObjectHasUsefulText, BrailleBuffer, BrailleHandler, getControlFieldBraille, getFormatFieldBraille, getPropertiesBraille, getFocusRegions, getFocusContextRegions, getDisplayList, roleLabels, positiveStateLabels, negativeStateLabels, landmarkLabels, TEXT_SEPARATOR, INPUT_START_IND, INPUT_END_IND, SELECTION_SHAPE, brailleInput.handler, brailleInput.BrailleInputHandler.

Fix

Add globalPlugins/brailleEssentials/brailleCompat.py, which imports each symbol from its real home and falls back to the flat modules when the sub-modules are absent — so the add-on still runs on the manifest minimum of 2025.3.3, where these names are neither moved nor deprecated.

Call sites become bc.TextInfoRegion instead of braille.TextInfoRegion, which is marginally shorter than what it replaces; no line goes over the configured 110-column limit.

Stable objects are re-exported directly. Two module aliases are kept, because they can't be captured at import time:

• bc.brailleInput — handler is rebound by braille initialise/terminate, so it must be read through the module.
• bc.regionsProperties — patches.py assigns the field-formatting functions back, so it needs the module object.

Second bug: LOUIS_DOTS_IO_START raises AttributeError

patches.py reads brailleInput.LOUIS_DOTS_IO_START in its BrailleInputHandler._translate replacement, which runs on every braille keyboard translation:

data = "".join([chr(cell | brailleInput.LOUIS_DOTS_IO_START) for cell in self.bufferBraille[:pos]])

NVDA's deprecation table declares that name moved to braille.input.constants, but that module never defines it — I checked every module in library.zip, and the value now lives only in louisHelper._DOTS_IO_START. So the documented alias resolves to nothing and raises AttributeError on current builds.

brailleCompat resolves it from louisHelper._DOTS_IO_START, then the pre-split public name, then the liblouis literal 0x8000.

Verification

• Every one of the 166 bc.* accesses was resolved against the actual symbol tables in NVDA's library.zip — 0 unresolved.
• All modules byte-compile.
• No braille.* / brailleInput.* deprecated reads remain; braille.handler is untouched, since it is not deprecated.
• Diff is content-only: 176 insertions, 164 deletions, no reformatting.

Not addressed here

patches.py replaces the field-formatting functions by assigning to the braille module:

braille.getControlFieldBraille = getControlFieldBraille

On current NVDA braille/regions/textInfo.py binds getControlFieldBraille into its own module globals at import, so writing the name onto the braille package no longer reaches the code that calls it — these three patches appear to be inert on recent builds, independently of this PR. This change retargets the assignment to regionsProperties so save and restore stay symmetric and the deprecated alias reflects the patch, but making the patch effective again would mean assigning into the consumer modules, which is a behaviour change I did not want to make blind. Flagging it for you rather than guessing.

[serrebidev]

Closing as a duplicate — I missed that #8 already covers this, and covers it better.

#8 resolves the same symbols through a brailleCompat module with the same pre-2026.1 fallback, and additionally fixes something I explicitly left alone here: it patches the field-formatting functions through patchBrailleFunction/_holderModules, writing to every namespace that actually holds a binding. That handles the import-time from .properties import ... bindings in braille/regions/NVDAObject.py and braille/regions/textInfo.py, which my branch did not. It also covers LOUIS_DOTS_IO_START.

Please review #8 instead. Sorry for the noise.