Writing a Custom Software Input Panel

[Peter Foot]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.msdn.com/marcpe/archive/2005/02/10/370341.aspx' target='_blank'>http://blogs.msdn.com/marcpe/archiv.../10/370341.aspx</a><br /><br /></div>Microsoft's <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/marcpe">Marcus Perryman</a> has posted on his blog a sample project to demonstrate building a custom Software Input Panel (SIP) for Pocket PC. To build the code you will need at least eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 SP2. Using this technique you can plug in your own methods alongside the standard Keyboard, Letter and Block recognisers.

[mv]

Is there any way i can have a letter recognizer, but in the numbers area, number buttons? Keyboard for numbers and recognizer for letters. It would be much faster. Also, can it be a little smaller? It takes to much screen space.

[Peter Foot]

To do that you would more or less have to write the recogniser part yourself :( since there isn't a way to pick and choose from both but I can see the advantages of your request.
HTC ship an intersting custom input panel with the Magician (iMate Jam) which is a large format numberical/t9 pad.

Peter

[baralong]

Is there any chance that one could be implemented in .net? I've written com addins in .net but not on the Compact Framework. How would one go about it?

[Peter Foot]

Not solely in .NET because the Compact Framework v1.0 doesn't have COM interop. But you could write a SIP with a combination of c++ and managed code but that would get quite complex.