1. 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 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; said pattern sample and test features including index based features derived from the stroke defining sequences of said data points representing a word and comprising a first index component provided as a value corresponding with the total number of strokes comprising a word, a second index component provided as a value corresponding with the number of inflection points of a stroke, wherein such inflection points comprise a significant bend in a stroke, a top location, a bottom location and a baseline crossing point in the stroke, and a third index component provided as a value corresponding with the termination of inflection point index components for a given stroke; and display means responsive to said derived output signals for effecting the publication of a said predetermined character glyph of said text associated with said pattern sample features.