On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Brice Gibson wrote:
> Anyone have info on barcoding under Linux.
At my last job, I did a little research into barcode solutions. Not Linux
specific, tho. I remember that a website called Barcode 1
<http://www.barcode-1.net> had lots of good information.
If I were you, I would try searches on the usual Big Name Linux Sites, like
<http://www.freshmeat.net> and <http://www.google.com/linux>.
> We are looking for the source code so we can mod it for our own purposes.
There often isn't any low-level source code needed -- i.e., everything is
application level. See below.
> We are specifically looking at what is called 2D barcoding (I believe)
> the same style that UPS uses on it's packages.
Yes. There are two styles of barcodes. The classic barcodes, like the UPC
symbols you find on most consumer products, are called "one dimensional" or
"linear" barcodes. The newer, more advanced codes (which aren't really "bar"
codes, technically) are called "two dimensional" or "matrix" codes, because
they encode information in a two-dimensional matrix of dots.
On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Michael O'Donnell wrote:
> If I had to bet, it would be that you're unlikely to find anything
> nonproprietary that will help you work with such codes...
If you want to work with the readers themselves, that may be the case.
However, most scanners I've seen simply spew the data they read from a code
into an RS-232 serial port or IBM-PC keyboard port. So you don't need
anything propriatary to use them. If the scanner uses the keyboard port, you
may not even need any *software* to use them. You can often simply plug them
inline with your keyboard, select the input field you want, and scan -- the
reader then "types" the code for you.
It is likely the amount of information in a matrix code would make the
keyboard approach impractical, but you could still make use of a serial-port
scanner with very little special code. Simply read the data stream from the
serial port using standard library calls, and do what you want with it.
On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Bob Bell wrote:
>> MaxiCode is a public domain symbology and no license is required
>> in order to use it.
>
> All seems very refreshing. It looks like it might be a little difficult
> to get your hands on the actually standard without paying money, though.
> Hopefully, that's not the case.
It is pretty typically for "open" standards to be freely available, but for
the standards body to charge money for their official copy of the standards
document. I'm okay with this; it lets the developers make their money while
still letting everyone use it. That's strictly IMHO, of course.
One code I lieked was the "Aztec" code, which is a slightly less
sophisticated matrix code very similar to Maxicode. The standard is freely
available, which is a plus. And it has a cool name. ;-) More info is
available from Barcode 1, mentioned above.
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Net Technologies, Inc. <http://www.ntisys.com>
Voice: (800)905-3049 x18 Fax: (978)499-7839
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