27. A system for the symbolic-based recognition of a handwriting input to an input surface having an output provided as a stream of coordinate data points, comprising: a data base memory storing a compilation of text-pattern pairs, said pattern of each said pair having been derived as sample features of said handwriting and including an associated sample index derived as aspects of said handwriting sample features, said text of each said pair representing at least one predetermined character glyph; a processor, responsive to said output to extract pattern test features and a corresponding test index therefrom, responsive to access said memory stored compilation and identify a said sample index corresponding with said test index, responsive to carry out a comparison of said pattern test features with said pattern sample features associated with said identified sample index, responsive in the presence of a correspondence between said pattern test and sample features to derive output signals corresponding with said text associated with said pattern sample features, wherein said pattern sample and test features include stroke based features derived from each stroke defining sequence of said data points and comprising: a first stroke feature provided as a value corresponding with the average worm moment based moment of stroke, a second stroke feature provided as a value corresponding with the aspect ratio of a stroke, said stroke aspect ratio generally being determined to be K/.pi.* ARCTAN (stroke-height/stroke-width) where K is a constant, and a third stroke feature provided as a value corresponding with the beginning and ending locations of a stroke relative to a dimension of a word within which such stroke is incorporated, said third stroke feature for the general case being expressed as: x.sub.0 =K (x.sub.b -x.sub.min)/(x.sub.max -x.sub.min) and x.sub.1 =K (x.sub.e -x.sub.min)/(x.sub.max x.sub.min), y.sub.0 =K (y.sub.b -y.sub.min)/(y.sub.max y.sub.min) and y.sub.1 =K (y.sub.e -y.sub.min)/(x=y.sub.max y.sub.min), where x.sub.0, y.sub.0 are the stroke's respective beginning x- and y- coordinate features, x.sub.1, y.sub.1 are the strokes respective ending x- and y- coordinate features x.sub.b, y.sub.b are the stroke's beginning respective x- and y- coordinate values, x.sub.min, y.sub.min are the word's minimum respective x- and y- coordinates, x.sub.max, y.sub.max are the word's maximum respective x- and y- coordinates, and x.sub.e, y.sub.e are the stroke's respective x- and y- ending coordinate values; and display means responsive to said derived output signals for effecting the publication of a said predetermined character glyph sequence of said text associated with said pattern sample features.
30. The system of claim 27 in which said pattern sample and test features include signature verification features derived from each word defining sequence of said data points and comprising: a first signature verification feature provided as a value corresponding with the relative interval of time taken to write the word.