I think that the HWR debate is pretty much comparing apples and oranges.
Or, saying that's there's a 'best' color for cars. I've used Newtons since
the 100 and started using Graffiti on the 100 because the HWR was so
pathetic. I've never stopped using it. The most common argument against it
seems to be 'The machine should adapt to you, not the other way around.' It
reminded me of the time I took a violin I'd constructed of acrylic plastic
and chrome plated steel (not an original design. Wish I could say it was)
to a violin maker to get strings. He treated it like it with complete
disdain, like it was covered with maggots. It wasn't a true violin because
it wasn't made from trees. It wasn't natural! It wasn't real. But it was
built for a different purpose than an acoustical violin. It fed a
synthesizer and all that mattered was the pitch and amplitude of the note.
So, I guess it all depends on your point of view and the application. I
love Graffiti. I am completely fluent in it. I can write as fast or faster
than I can on paper. I learned it very easily and it just got better as
time went on. The recognition is virtually 100% and that includes numbers,
international accented characters, and punctuation. I can do a German
Umlaut blindfolded. I have exact control over case and spacing and a 100%
reliable new line, backspace and tab. This is all with no 'enhancements' to
Graffiti as described at this site for the Palm. It's always available with
a simple double tap or I can bring it up with a button at the cursor that I
created with Standalone's Standalone Menu Editor. And I can rest my hand on
the lower right hand corner of the Newton and write all day without my hand
covering any part of the display because all the characters are written in a
nice neat little box off the screen over the buttons.
So my point is that the handwriting we all learned growing up is no more
'natural' than Graffiti, any more than violins grow on trees. The objective
for me is the get the text into the machine effectively. Graffiti does this
very effectively. Occasionally I use the built in recognition to put in a
few characters or a word but it's usually an exersize in frustration. I
have made forays into trying to use the built in recognition because
everyone raves about it so much and it is kind of a thrill to see a machine
do something so human until it starts to screw up. It always becomes clear
quickly that it was going to require a lot of adjustment on my part to make
it work right. I've heard others say that their Newton understood their
handwriting really well right out of the box. More power to them. That's
great! But one size does not fit all. I find myself thinking, what's
natural about having spacing determined by timing, for heavens sake? That
drives me absolutely nuts. Or having to be so careful about the relative
size of my characters to make sure it distinguished case. Sure I could
improve that by ADAPTING HOW I WRITE. Yes, the Newton can be trained but
you still have to adapt, at least some of us do. A lot of you devoted
Newton HWR devotees might have better experience and I'm glad it works for
you. But for me Graffiti is the clear and undisputed choice. I've talked
with a lot of Palm users who are happy with it also. I use it daily and
I've got hundreds of pages of text in my Newt to prove it. I don't WANT
natural handwriting recognition. I just want it to work fast, reliably and
consistently and that's what I get with Graffiti.
Jon.
-----Original Message-----
From: Frédéric Paché [mailto:f.pache@skynet.be]
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 23:33
To: newtontalk@planetnewton.com
Subject: NTLK Graffiti really accurate ?
A good product for Palm computers is reviewed on this link:
http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200006/tealscript001.html.
This is again a proof that Graffiti is certainly not the best HWR system...
I have a Palm III (for months), so this is not an assumption. When I saw my
Newton MP2000 clone understanding my own handwriting, I was like a child in
a Christmas morning!
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 01 2000 - 00:00:05 CDT