I have setup a CAD tablet and some Character inputting device(Pen) for
my client.
The CAD tablet plug into serial port and can coexist with another serial or
PS/2 mouse. I have not seen anyone use the mouse with his left hand
and run the tablet on his right hand, so I don't know it will function
simultaneously or not :) but it works one at a time. Usually, the tablet only
work with the CAD software running.
For the pens, most of my client use it for Chinese inputting as Chinese
typing is pain in the @#$. It plugs into a serial port, it can co-exist with
another serial or PS/2 mouse. Win95 will even auto load a driver for the
pen. But one must run an OCR software to translate the handwriting into
character.
One thing to watch out for is IRQ conflict. This might not be problem on
newer computer with modems that can use IRQ10 and PS/2 mouse using
IRQ12. But on older model, you may have serial mouse, pen and modem
each using com 1,2 and 3 respectively. I generally set the mouse and
pen to com 1 and 3 with the modem on com 2, assuming most people
would not use the pen and the serial mouse simultaneously.
Hope this help, Dan

>1.  Can a pen and tablet be functional simultaneously with a mouse?
>2.  Do they normally plug into a serial port, a parallel port, or are some
>available for USB ports?
>3.  Are there any brand names and models that are particularly good or
>particularly bad?

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