Inside Graffiti 2

[Ed Hardy]

Graffiti 2 is going to replace the version of Graffiti that has been part of the Palm OS since the first model. Brighthand's Editor-in-Chief Ed Hardy spoke with the people involved in the switch and brings us this report on this new text-entry system.

Read more at www.brighthand.com/article/Inside_Graffiti_2

[M@rtin]

Many of the Graffiti 2 characters have to be drawn with two strokes, while all but the X can be drawn with a single stroke in the original

It's possible to do an X with a single stroke - just do a mirrored K symbol (but I'm sure you already knew that )

[Gekko]

Great article! G2 doesn't look too bad! I thought many more characters would be changed vs. G1. The only trouble I would have at first is I, K, T, X, 4 but that should be easy to overcome. I say would and should because by the time my TT wears out, I will probably be joining the dark side with Dell's version of the HP1910 with PPC2004.

What I can't figure out is why Xerox can sue Palm over G1 but G2 by Jot is untouchable? They are so similiar! Why is G2 so different than G1 that Xerox can't make the same claim? If one agrees that G1 was an infringement (I happen to not agree), looking at G2, would you not also agree that G2 is also an infringement? (because they are so damn similiar)

[donkthemagiclla]

I used Jot a long time ago on my PocketPC... I seem to remember that even though it's not officially documented, it will recognize graffiti just fine... is my memory correct? is this still the case, and they're just not playing it up to keep the lawyers happy?

I don't really have a vested interest in this one way or another (I use a PocketPC with Calligrapher), but I'm curious that no one else has mentioned this.

[imported_Ben S]

PocketPCs have two character recognizers: block recognizer (similar to Graffiti) and Jot (which has a different name I can't remember right now).

Similarly, the commercial Jot product for the PalmOS has a "Graffiti fallthrough" mode that will pass unrecognized strokes through to Graffiti.

However, Graffiti 2 has neither of these options. Remember that Graffiti 2 is based on Jot, it is not Jot itself.

I've been using Jot on my TT since the announcement of Graffiti 2 and I must admit that for a while yesterday I switched back to Graffiti and found myself getting frustrated. Jot is different, and actually rather addictive. But it's not as efficient as Graffiti in most cases.

[imported_argent]

Graffiti 2 doesn't look like Graffiti *or* the Jot I'm familiar with. Either that, or Jot is configurable by the licensee. On the Pocket PC, the reason the "i" is two strokes is because a single stroke gets you an "l". Graffiti 2 seems to use the Graffiti "L", which means that *both* letters are modified and slower than the alternative.

In fact if you look at the Jot card: http://www.cic.com/support/faq/Pos/Jot/refcard.gif

Then compare the Graffiti 2 card: http://www.brighthand.com/images/Pal...raffiti2_1.jpg

You'll see that Palm has changed several ofthe letters, so that people who are used to Jot will also run into problems. In fact the only characters Graffiti 2's "preferred" set has in common with Jot's "preferred" set are: C H I O P Q S T U V W Y and Z.

Jot's original K is actually closer to the original Graffiti's K.

Now both of them have alternatives, and if you look at the complete set at http://www.cic.com/support/faq/Pos/Jot/char.gif
you can see that jot has single stroke (though sometimes quite complex strokes) equivalents for most characters. It certainly doesn't seem like it would be immune to Xerox' absurd lawsuit.

[JoeMoreno]

I would like to give my opinion about Palm Corp strategy.

I heard that Palm Corp considered to use M*******t (finding the name should be pretty straight forward) as default handwritting recognition system at some time. I found it great for new palm users, enabling them to use "usual" characters (up to 6 strokes) and adapt the recognizer to their proper writting style. For Graffiti addicts, such a solution was nonsense, although Myscript is able to recognize Graffiti characters when you make it learn them.

Then, Graffiti2 arrived, different from Graffiti. Not only long time palm users are unhappy with this new solution, but the new ones gonna have to restrict them to this Jot like, when other softwares can do better recognition.

At a time when we can expect palm devices to be strong enough to perform cursive recognition, why use ancestor systems ???

Joe

[masitti]

This has got to be a joke... G2 looks just like the original Grafitti! It is still uppercase which is a huge disappointment.

[JoeMoreno]

Ok i have to say it, use Myscript if you are a new palm user, otherwise stick to Graffiti.

True, Graffiti 2 is Jot(Joke) and it sucks a lot.

i still have a dream, cursive recognition on palm (Myscript ? )

[Kent Willyard]

I'm very disappointed in Palm. By all appearances, they're rushing Graffiti 2 to market with known bugs, no backwards compatibility (or even trainability) with Graffiti, and no support for full-screen text entry (arguably Jot's most compelling advantage aside from echoing stokes onscreen).

As a long-time Graffiti user since the Apple Newton MessagePad, I'm in no mood to be forced to re-learn how to enter data into my handheld, and I suspect I'm in good company. Given Palm's past efforts to maintain backward compatibility, I'm really surprised they're setting themselves up like this.