Re: [NTLK] Inkwell and cursive HWR in OS X

On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:41 AM, Larry Yaeger <lsynt@beanblossom.in.us> wrote:
> At 7:30 AM +0200 5/8/08, Jon Glass wrote:
> >From my own experience, it _does_ learn, not just you. Here's how you
> >can "tell." In the System HWR prefs (if you have alt.rec installed,
> >you need to choose that from alt.rec's prefs in the Notepad), make
> >sure you have "cursive" turned on, and choose "Letter Shapes" from the
> >popup down below. This window shows the various ways that people
> >write their letters. As you go through your letters, you will see
> >particular shapes outlined with a box. Those are what the HWR engine
> >has identified as _your_ style. Now, the cool part is that if you are
> >having problems with particular letters, you can manually chose a
> >style, yourself.
>
> Are you sure those aren't the default letter shapes that are initially highlighted?

I forgot to mention that I have seen these change over time. I used to
spend a lot of time (In OS 1.3) modifying these things to improve
recognition, and I know I didn't modify them all. BTW, Apple's own
docs used to discuss this (page 131 in my own 120 NOS1.3 handbook). I
found my 120 manual a year or so ago, and was reading about this. Oh,
and you didn't need to use the "practice" program for it to learn. The
key is to make the correction right away, using the built-in
correction tools (either the popup list, or the character-by-character
popup.

> Oh dear, I really hate to interfere with the nice, improved behavior you thought you experienced, but, honest, the print recognizer doesn't even know you've changed anything over in that part of the world.

I can only go by what the 1.x documents stated, and by my own
experience in 2.0. and I _know_ I was able to solve some problem
letters, and the change was immediate and obvious. I used to write
pages and pages of notes on my Newton, using HWR extensively,
exercising it to its fullest. I know that you worked on it on the
inside, but I also remember that the docs for OS 1.x did mention this
trick for printed (btw, I learned early to turn off "word"
recognition, and used "letter-by-letter" exclusively in OS 1), and
it's been commonly reported to work for NOS 2, and I have seen it
myself, and I would have a hard time believing it was just myself. I
have always attributed it to the original Paragraph recognizer picking
up where Rosetta left off (because Rosetta supposedly doesn't
"learn")--or maybe, and I sort of forgot this, but I have Paul Guyot's
alt.rec installed. It might be what's picking up the slack. I've used
that for so many years, I forget I have it installed. I need to
refresh my memory on how alt.rec works. ;-)

-- 
 -Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<jonglass@usa.net>
"I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals." --Jack Nicklaus
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