It's worth keeping in mind that the handwriting recognition system in Palm (Graffiti) was designed not as a continuous-handwriting recognition system but as a "block entry" system (a human computer interface input term). Hence the simplification of input strokes and the idea of character modifiers like the "shift/cap stroke" (stroke-up) or the "character stroke" (tap) on the writing area.

So, in an ideal world we could just install a Graffiti input control into the N8x0 system and be done with it, but no such beast exists.

Back when had a Treo 180 with the graffiti pad, I used this and really liked the input pattern:
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/demos/Quikwrite2.html

It would be cool to port that input method to Maemo/Hildon UI... hrm...

cheers,
Etienne