My company needs a small inventory management app. Does
python have any libraries to help with reading and writing
bar codes?
I've written bar code apps and python really doesn't enter
into that part of things. Printers generally have bar code
printing capabilities so you just send the right escape
sequences and you get the bar codes. To read them, bar code
readers scan and translate before sending the values through
typically a keyboard wedge or serial port.
To add to what Emile mentions, most barcode readers present a
keyboard-wedge interface, so that scanning a barcode merely
appears as if you typed it at the keyboard (USB readers show up
as a HID profile). Often they'll have configuration barcodes
that you can scan to tweak the profile (such as pressing <enter>,
<tab> or an arrow-key after sending the barcode; controlling beep
tone & volume, etc).
For printing barcodes, you can use any number of solutions -- the
most popular usually just involves installing a "barcode font"
and then rendering text in that font to your desired output
canvas. I believe there are some native rendering solutions as
well, but I've not investigated since the font method was more
than sufficient for my wants.
-tkc
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