17. A method in a computer system for generating a probability table for use in identifying patterns, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of sample patterns; determining for each sample pattern an associated set of characteristics based on that sample pattern; for each possible pair of sample patterns, comparing the pair of sample patterns to generate a set of comparison values based on the characteristics associated with the pair of sample patterns; and for each possible comparison value, generating a total count of the comparison value in the generated sets of comparison values; generating a match count of the comparison value in the sets of comparison values that are generated from pairs of matching sample patterns; calculating a probability value based on the generated match count and the generated total count; and storing the calculated probability value in the probability table so that the stored probability value can be retrieved using the comparison value, so that the stored probability values can be used to recognize handwritten characters.
17. A method in a computer system for generating a probability table for use in identifying patterns, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of sample patterns; determining for each sample pattern an associated set of characteristics based on that sample pattern; for each possible pair of sample patterns, comparing the pair of sample patterns to generate a set of comparison values based on the characteristics associated with the pair of sample patterns; and for each possible comparison value, generating a total count of the comparison value in the generated sets of comparison values; generating a match count of the comparison value in the sets of comparison values that are generated from pairs of matching sample patterns; calculating a probability value based on the generated match count and the generated total count; and storing the calculated probability value in the probability table so that the stored probability value can be retrieved using the comparison value, so that the stored probability values can be used to recognize handwritten characters. 23. The method of claim 17 wherein a characteristic of a sample pattern represents a pair of coordinates describing a starting point and an ending point of a stroke of the sample pattern.