Gesture recognizers with delegates for controlling and modifying gesture recognition

A method is performed at an electronic device having a touch-sensitive surface and configured to execute a software application. The method includes displaying one or more views of the software application. The one or more displayed views include a plurality of gesture recognizers. The plurality of gesture recognizers includes at least one discrete gesture recognizer and at least one continuous gesture recognizer. The discrete gesture recognizer is configured to send a single action message in response to a respective gesture, and the continuous gesture recognizer is configured to send action messages at successive recognized sub-events of a respective recognized gesture. The method also includes detecting one or more touches, and processing each of the touches using one or more of the gesture recognizers. The processing of a respective touch includes processing the respective touch at a respective gesture recognizer in accordance with a respective gesture definition corresponding to the respective gesture recognizer, and conditionally sending one or more respective action messages to the software application in accordance with an outcome of the processing of the respective touch at the respective gesture recognizer. The method further includes executing the software application in accordance with one or more action messages received from one or more of the gesture recognizers corresponding to one or more of the touches.