Most people can learn to type much faster than they are able to write. As commented by Kajler and Soiffer , and supported by Brown's study , keyboards remain the most efficient device for purely textual data input, even for self taught typists. As a result, some formulae will always be easier to enter with a keyboard than with a pen.
An important facility that should be added to an interface such as this is the provision for the user being able to type formulae in directly, while still allowing them to use pen based input for the things that are difficult to express with keyboard commands, such as integrals and fractions.
With the option to use the keyboard, the interface would then start to regain some of the speed of use that it does not currently have in comparison to LATEX and Microsoft's Equation Editor, both of which are keyboard oriented.
, keyboards remain the most efficient device for purely textual data input, even for self taught typists. As a result, some formulae will always be easier to enter with a keyboard than with a pen.
An important facility that should be added to an interface such as this is the provision for the user being able to type formulae in directly, while still allowing them to use pen based input for the things that are difficult to express with keyboard commands, such as integrals and fractions.
With the option to use the keyboard, the interface would then start to regain some of the speed of use that it does not currently have in comparison to LATEX and Microsoft's Equation Editor, both of which are keyboard oriented.