Stroke Order and Direction - Microsoft Windows Pen API Programmer's Reference (penapi.hlp)

Stroke Order and Direction

Noting the order and placement of strokes can help a recognizer handle the following cases:

Delayed strokes. A delayed stroke occurs after other strokes, but belongs to an earlier, unfinished character. For example, in writing the word "two," the user might cross the "t" only after writing the rest of the word.
Correction strokes. A correction stroke alters the interpretation of other strokes for example, placing a small stroke on the top of a "y" to change it to a "g." Correction strokes are often delayed.
Characters written out of order. For example, the user should be able to first write "t o," then fill in a "w" between the letters. The recognizer should recognize the completed word as "two" instead of "tow."
Variations in stroke order or direction. Different users often write the multiple strokes of characters in a different order and direction. To take an extreme example, the four strokes forming a capital "E" can be written in 2 (4) *4! = 384 distinct ways.

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