Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for emulating computer keyboard input from a handprint terminal, the output of the handprint terminal comprising character data along with row and column position data for each character. A line buffer memory temporarily holds characters from the same row. While the characters belonging to any given row are stored in the line buffer memory, local editing may be performed to delete and/or add and/or change characters, with function signals being outputted from the apparatus by the control unit equivalent to function signals that would be outputted from a keyboard. When a character received is in a different row from the character preceeding it, the line buffer memory is cleared of all previous characters that had been loaded into it and carriage return or carriage-up signals are outputted from the control unit corresponding to the row change. The character is then loaded into the line buffer memory to start a new row.