[BUGA] Re: "Handwriting" (was: Mobile phone/PDA recommendations?)

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Saturday, 10 December 2005 at 10:11:58 +1030, Daniel O'Connor wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 08:08, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
>>>> And a lower data rate?
>>>
>>> No, higher once you learn the layout.
>>
>> I challenge anybody here to write "handwriting" on a PDA as fast as I
>> can use the toy keyboard.  It's just not possible.  A keystroke is a
>> single operation; almost all "handwriting" requires at least two
>> strokes, sometimes more.
>
> Quikwriting is designed so you don't have to lift the stylus off the screen
> unless you want to abort a stroke or change from one 'wheel' to the other.
>
> http://mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/pocketpc.html
>
> Here is a Java demo ->
> http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/demos/quikwriting.html

OK.  I looked at this.

* On FreeBSD, it required me to download unspecified software that
  couldn't be found, so I had to give up.

* On Apple, the image didn't render correctly.  Maybe as a result I
  couldn't get it to do anything.

* On Mozilla under Microsoft, I had to install Java.  After that, it
  still didn't work.

* With Internet Exploder, it worked.

You're right that it takes a lot of getting used to.  It's like
learning to type all over again.  More seriously, though, it seems
that every character requires at least three more or less straight
strokes of the stylus.  I can't possibly imagine this ever being
faster than hunting and pecking with a stylus.

> Although maybe you are a superb hunt & peck stylist :)

I think most people can do that faster.

Greg
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