Remove automatic language option from MathCAT speech settings

[RyanMcCleary]

Link to issue number:

Closes #19811
I am opening this PR as a follow-up to #19888 at the request of @seanbudd

Summary of the issue:

The automatic language option for MathCAT speech was confusing and didn't respond as expected to speech voice/synthesizer language changes. (from #19888)

Description of user facing changes:

Removes the "Automatic" option from MathCAT speech. The default is now English. (from #19888)

Description of developer facing changes:

None

Description of development approach:

Removed the _mathMl parameter from getLanguageToUse, the save/set/restore language pattern from convertSSMLTextForNVDA, and the "Auto" fallback in _createConfigForSpeechStyle. Added a config profile upgrade step to migrate language = Auto to en.

Testing strategy:

Unit testing: added unit tests to tests\unit\test_config.py.

Manual testing: Set the math language to English, read math and made sure everything was behaving as before.
Then, tested with a variety of combinations of NVDA language, synthesizer language (with eSpeak), and math language.
Specifically, I tested:

• NVDA language of English, synth language of Spanish, math language of Spanish
• NVDA language of English, synth language of Spanish, math language of English
• NVDA language of English, synth language of Spanish, math language of English
• NVDA language of English, synth language of French, math language of Dutch
• NVDA language of Dutch, synth language of Dutch, math language of Dutch
• NVDA language of Dutch, synth language of English, math language of Spanish
• NVDA language of Dutch, synth language of Chinese (cantonese), math language of German

In all cases, the math language option overrode the more general synth language and NVDA language options.

Known issues with pull request:

None

Code Review Checklist:

• Documentation:
  • Change log entry
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Security precautions taken.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR removes the “Automatic” language option from MathCAT speech settings, making English (en) the default and adding a config schema upgrade to migrate existing profiles off the old Auto value.

Changes:

• Removes “Auto” handling in MathCAT speech conversion / speech-style configuration and language-option population.
• Updates MathCAT language selection to always use the configured language preference (default en).
• Bumps config schema version and adds an upgrade step to migrate math.speech.language = Auto to en.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
source/mathPres/MathCAT/speech.py	Simplifies SSML→NVDA command conversion by removing MathCAT Language save/set/restore logic.
source/mathPres/MathCAT/preferences.py	Removes “Auto” fallback behavior when creating speech-style config entries.
source/mathPres/MathCAT/MathCAT.py	Stops passing MathML into getLanguageToUse, always using the configured language preference.
source/mathPres/MathCAT/localization.py	Removes “Automatic” from the language list and changes language resolution to fall back to en if Auto is encountered.
source/config/profileUpgradeSteps.py / source/config/configSpec.py	Bumps schema version to 22, changes default math speech language to en, and adds an upgrade step for Auto→en.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

source/mathPres/MathCAT/localization.py:127

• getLanguages() iterates os.listdir() without sorting, so the language dropdown order becomes filesystem-dependent. Now that the leading "Auto" entry has been removed, the first entry (and any UI fallback that selects index 0) can vary across systems/runs. Consider sorting the collected languages (e.g., by code/description) and/or explicitly placing the default language (en) first to keep the UI deterministic and aligned with the new default.

	languages: list[LanguageInfo] = []
	addRegionalLanguages = _createAddRegionalLanguagesFunction(languages)

	# populate the available language names in the dialog
	# the implemented languages are in folders named using the relevant ISO 639-1
	# code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes
	languageDir: str = pathToLanguagesFolder()
	for language in os.listdir(languageDir):
		pathToLanguageDir: str = os.path.join(pathToLanguagesFolder(), language)

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[SaschaCowley]

Thanks, @RyanMcCleary