RE: [SLUG] barcodes

From: Ken Elliott (kelliott11@cfl.rr.com)
Date: Tue May 26 2009 - 21:00:33 EDT


 On May 25, 2009 4:43 PM, "Eben King" <eben01@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > Can someone recommend a penlike or gunlike barcode reader? Something
> > wireless would be nice. Or are they all pretty much the same?

Barcode readers fall into a few groups: Standalone devices, PC-attached
devices (direct read), and keyboard wedge.

The keyboard wedge is a device that mimics a keyboard. When you scan the
barcode, the data is decoded by the device and sent as keyboard data. Your
app thinks you typed it at the keyboard. Traditional wedged have a box that
plugs into your PC keyboard port. Your actual keyboard plugs into the
wedge. No driver is needed, so this is a big plus for Linux users. There
are also USB wedges that appear to be a USB keyboard. Your system thinks
you have two keyboards, so this may or may not work in all systems. But
cost tends to be lower and they are quite handy, being USB-based.

Stand alone devices are (in effect) small PDAs with a bar code reader. They
cost more, but are portable. You have to program them or buy an app.

There are simple bar code fonts. In some cases, you simply use that font
rather than a man-readable font. The better codes include a checksum, but
this will require the checksum to be calculated before printing. Great if
the data is critical (price), but harder to implement. Some printers have a
bar code font built-in and are pretty easy to use.

Check out ID Warehouse and Worthington Data. Both sell a lot of kits.

Symbol is good stuff. Wasp is cheap and not bad for light use. Contact
scanners will wear the label. Noncontact scanners cost more, but don't
touch the label. You can fine Wasp USB readers for around $100. HP makes
pen-type readers for about the same.

Good luck.

Ken Elliott
=====================

-----Original Message-----
From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of Eben King
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:17 AM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: Re: [SLUG] barcodes

On Mon, 25 May 2009, Bill D wrote:

> On May 25, 2009 4:43 PM, "Eben King" <eben01@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > Can someone recommend a penlike or gunlike barcode reader? Something
> > wireless would be nice. Or are they all pretty much the same? And are
> > there a wide variety of coding styles, most of which are incompatible?
> > See, I'm looking to index all of our books (a few thousand, is my guess)

> > to make them searchable, print a DDS/LOC label, etc. Right now they're
> > a mess.

> As far as cataloging your books. I would suggest readerware.com . It will
> use the barcode to pull all the info from the book from about 20 different
> sites such as amazon and library of congress.

Thanks. I've gotten a lot of good suggestions for the software.

As far as the hardware, are the readers all functionally identical? I
thought they would do decoding of the barcodes, and that depends on the
style of barcode used ("x of y" for particular values of x and y). Or is
one code-language so overwhelmingly popular that for all intents and
purposes all readers understand it? Is a reader that emulates a keyboard
the best type, or should I look for something unique?

For the computer, it definitely has to be quiet or silent, considering it'd
be next to a bedroom. I'd like something hand-held like a PDA, but I'd like

a decent-sized screen and usable keyboard more. Maybe a netbook with some
flavor of SSD?

-- 
-eben      QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP      http://royalty.mine.nu:81
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political
  view or strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof
  is left as an exercise for your kill-file." -- Bertil Jonell
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