HwxALCValid

This function defines the set of characters that the character recognition engine can return when it converts ink, which is user-drawn input, to a text string.

At a Glance

Header file: Recog.h
Windows CE versions: 2.0 and later

Syntax

BOOL HwxALCValid( HRC hrc, ALC alc);

Parameters

hrc

[in] Handle to the handwriting recognition context (HRC) object.

alc

[in] Alphabet code (ALC) value that describes the character groupings used by the recognizer to evaluate the input handwriting. It can be one or more of the following values:

Value Description
ALC_WHITE Used for a blank or white space.
ALC_LCALPHA Used for the lowercase alphabet, a through z.
ALC_UCALPHA Used for the uppercase alphabet, A through Z.
ALC_NUMERIC Used for the digits 0 through 9.
ALC_PUNC Used for the set of standard punctuation. It is language-dependent.
ALC_NUMERIC_PUNC Used for all non-digit characters in numbers, such as the period and the comma.
ALC_MATH Used for a set of math symbols, such as %, ^, *, (), _, +, {}, <, and /.
ALC_MONETARY Used for punctuation that appears in local monetary expressions.
ALC_COMMON_SYMBOLS Signifies commonly used symbols from ALC_WHITE, ALC_LCALPHA, ALC_UCALPHA, ALC_NUMERIC, ALC_PUNC, ALC_NUMERIC_PUNC, ALC_MATH, and ALC_MONETARY.
ALC_OTHER Signifies other punctuation that is not typically used.
ALC_ASCII Used for the 7-bit ASCII characters—20 through 7F.
ALC_HIRAGANA Used for Hiragana characters.
ALC_KATAKANA Used for Katakana characters.
ALC_KANJI_COMMON Used for the most commonly used Kanji characters (JPN).
ALC_KANJI_RARE Used for the remaining Kanji characters (JPN).
ALC_HANGUL_COMMON Signifies the commonly used Hangul characters used in Korea.
ALC_HANGUL_RARE Signifies the remaining Hangul characters used in Korea.
ALC_OEM Specific to recognizers created by OEMs.

ALC groupings created by combining two or more related ALC basic values are described in the following table.

ALC groupings Basic ALC values
ALC_ALPHA ALC_LCALPHA | ALC_UCALPHA
ALC_ALPHANUMERIC ALC_ALPHA | ALC_NUMERIC
ALC_KANA ALC_HIRAGANA | ALC_KATAKANA
ALC_KANJI_ALL ALC_KANJI_COMMON | ALC_KANJI_RARE
ALC_HANGUL_ALL ALC_HANGUL_COMMON | ALC_HANGUL_RARE
ALC_EXTENDED_SYM ALC_MATH | ALC_MONETARY | ALC_OTHER
ALC_SYS_MINIMUM ALC_ALPHANUMERIC | ALC_PUNC | ALC_WHITE
ALC_SYS_DEFAULT ALC_SYS_MINIMUM | ALC_COMMON_SYMBOLS

These groupings can be combined with each other or with the basic values for various languages, as described in the following table.

Language ALC groupings ALC groupings
ALC_USA_COMMON ALC_SYS_DEFAULT
ALC_USA_EXTENDED ALC_USA_COMMON | ALC_EXTENDED_SYM
ALC_JPN_COMMON ALC_SYS_DEFAULT | ALC_KANA | ALC_KANJI_COMMON
ALC_JPN_EXTENDED ALC_JPN_COMMON | ALC_EXTENDED_SYM | ALC_KANJI_RARE
ALC_CHS_COMMON ALC_SYS_DEFAULT | ALC_KANJI_COMMON
ALC_CHS_EXTENDED ALC_CHS_COMMON | ALC_EXTENDED_SYM | ALC_KANJI_RARE
ALC_CHT_COMMON ALC_SYS_DEFAULT | ALC_KANJI_COMMON
ALC_CHT_EXTENDED ALC_CHT_COMMON | ALC_EXTENDED_SYM | ALC_KANJI_RARE
ALC_KOR_COMMON ALC_SYS_DEFAULT | ALC_HANGUL_COMMON | ALC_KANJI_COMMON
ALC_KOR_EXTENDED ALC_KOR_COMMON | ALC_EXTENDED_SYM | ALC_HANGUL_RARE | ALC_KANJI_RARE

Return Values

TRUE indicates success. FALSE indicates failure. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

This function lets an application restrict or expand the amount of characters that the recognition engine uses when it translates user-drawn characters. For example, if an application is expecting a telephone number as input from a user, the application can call HwxALCValid to specify the ALC_NUMERIC character range. Specifying a limited character range prevents the recognition engine from interpreting a user-drawn zero as an uppercase “O.”

When HwxALCValid specifies multiple ALCs, an application can use the HwxALCPriority function to indicate the first ALC to use during the handwriting recognition process.

HwxALCValid fails when a specified ALC is not loaded on the device.

See Also

HwxALCPriority