[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] re-evaluating the handwriting input method - but there's a problem

[From: David Weinehall]

On tor, 2006-11-09 at 18:28 +0100, ext Antonio Orlando wrote:
> Today, I've tried the handwriting input method. Oh what a mess, as the  
> other times I've tried it. So, in the handwriting teaching app I have  
> decided to disable *all* the symbols for *all* the chars (in my western  
> charset), then I've created just one custom symbol for each lowercase  
> letter and for numbers. Yes it's a hard work, it took me about 20 minutes.
> 
> And surprise... it works like a charm! I can write at very high speed with  
> very low error rate without having ever used a handwriting input system;  
> I've only tried sometimes this one provided with 770, but the screen  
> keyboard was faster and accurate so I've soon abandoned it.
> 
> Now, with that trick, even with this first try it is way better than the  
> screen keyboard. But, there is a problem, which I suppose could be easily  
> solved, so the reason for this mail:
> 
> sometimes, I need to write capital letters, of course. I don't want to  
> define them as symbols, because they easily interfere with other ones,  
> this is something to definetely avoid. But, the solution is simple: there  
> should be a "caps-lock" button in the handwriting input application! I  
> will continue to use my lowercase symbols, but with the caps-lock enabled  
> they will be considered as capitals. Smooth and easy, isn't it?

I can only agree.  That would probably be the only thing that could make
me use the HWR.

> Can I hope this will be added in next firmware update? Just a little  
> button, would improve the usability of the entire device a lot. I suggest  
> this for everyone: use just ONE symbol for a character, and define symbols  
> for as little chars as possible - this way the error rate is zero or  
> really low, and you can handwrite 90% of the stuff you need to (supposing  
> we have the caps-lock button improvement, otherwise the percentage falls  
> down). Try it, if you ususally use the on-screen keyboard: it's not that  
> bad with this trick.


Regards: David Weinehall

[Disclaimer: These opinions does not represent Nokia bla bla bla bla]