16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein when a recognition mode is line mode, the second same space search is constrained.
10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising: receive a cursive handwriting input from a user; perform a hierarchical prototype search comprising: perform a first same space search against a mixed database having print and cursive samples; perform a second same space search against a cursive database having cursive samples; and perform a constrained dynamic time warp search on the mixed and cursive databases, using the results returned from the first same space search and the second same space search as the constraint; and use a result from the hierarchical prototype search to make a recognition decision regarding the cursive handwriting input from the user.