1. A user interface method for use with a touch gesture user interface in a system implementing global or universal gestures and application-specific gestures for the control of software executing on a device comprising a touch user interface and a computational processor, the method comprising Recognizing at least one posture of a finger in contact with a tactile sensor, Recognizing a touch gesture from a plurality of possible touch gestures by recognizing specific changes between postures, the changes comprising at least one recognized change in the angle of finger contact with the tactile sensor, Assigning a user interface function to the recognized touch gesture, Directing executing software to perform a user interface operation associated with the recognized touch gesture, the user interface operation selected from a plurality of possible from a user interface operations, and the association from plurality of possible associations, the plurality of possible associations comprising at least a global type and a second type, the first type of association being common across applications and the second type of association being an application-specific association that is specific to an application executing on the system, and Wherein the executing software is responsive to the recognized touch gesture.