1. A method of recognizing handwritten characters, the method comprising the steps of: recognizing a current handwritten stroke intended to be associated with at least one character such that at least one stroke code is associated with a recognized stroke to form a current stroke code sequence, the current stroke code sequence including the current stroke code and previously formed related stroke codes, if such related stroke codes were previously formed; retrieving from a source of characters one or more entries for display which correspond to the current stroke code sequence, the one or more entries representing one or more candidate characters; displaying the one or more entries retrieved from the source of characters at the completion of each stroke; repeating the recognition and retrieval steps if a next stroke is received such that the current stroke code sequence is formed from the stroke code associated with this stroke and stroke codes associated with preceding strokes; and generating a recognition result associated with the one or more candidate characters if one or more candidate characters are selected as the intended at least one character.