Originally Posted by Benson

Here you go

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

To my knowledge, nothing has been done with that "release", most likely because the "Hildon Input Method Framework" sux big donkey balls.

As a concept, Nokia's handwriting input method is fifteen to twenty years old, relying on the stupidest of all thinkable modularity models (with the possible exception of the Zaurus HWR, which actually requires the user to open the input box by hand!) and provided with an AI that is reminiscent of Red Dwarf's Holly in its lousier days.

In short, HWR on the Itablets sucks, and open sourcing it doesn't make it suddenly less suckier.

Originally Posted by Benson

No, but it opens the door for putting something somewhat less sucky in its place. I think a graffiti-like system should work flawlessly*, if some open-source implementation and some sharp maemo developer collide properly.

* Flawlessly here denotes that it works like on a Palm, with no glitches caused by the collision of two stupidly thinkable modularity models , rather than that it constitutes a real HWR system, let alone a good one.)

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

I consider Palm's Graffiti only marginally better than the Itablet's mess, and Jot (also known as Graffiti2) as the better of both, mainly because it allows for full-screen text entry. The only reason Graffiti seems fast, is because it forces the user to train and adapt to the computer, which is frankly ridiculous if you think about it.

And am I really the only one who thinks a dedicated text input area is soooo nineteen nineties?

Originally Posted by Benson

I'm not persuaded that the Newton's way of letting you write anywhere is such a great one; I'm not persuaded against it either, never having had a Newton. (I do know it, even confined to the dedicated area of a hildon-input-method, would spank the Nokia's HWR.) But one thing I can say against it: It inhibits porting of programs from "normal" OSes. When programs expect mouse and keyboard input, stylus and some dedicated text input method is one of the easiest ways to make that work. Maybe it should only be a fallback system, but for a device I use the way I use my N800, it must be there, and it must work right; hence my use of the finger keyboard at present. If graffiti or similar was available, I'd almost certainly switch.

Originally Posted by Benson

Had heard of PenOffice, but didn't realize it was... that nice. I almost want to buy it just to install it on my desktop and use it via rdp. The wierd thing is, it seems as though it would actually work that way (i.e. plain mouse events are enough for it).

EDIT: Just remembered I saw a download link; went back, and whaddaya know? Free 30-day trial. So at some point, I will try it on Windows via RDP. It'd be a shame if the N800 turned out to be more useful for note-taking that way. But I guess we already know it's a shame...

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

Edit: Benson, don't forget to try out PenCommander. It's one of the most amazing visual macro systems I've ever come across.

Yes, I know: I can type much faster than I can write (I'm a ten-finger typist), but I can write where I cannot type and I repeat the major advantage HWR has over any keyboard: You're not writing blind! HWR is (aside from speech recognition) the only input method where you can keep your eyes on the screen and still see what your hand is doing.