Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 11:54:09 -0800 From: Kent Stewart <kstewart@3-cities.com> To: Troy Settle <troy@picus.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Bar Code Scanning Message-ID: <38934561.B5237AD4@3-cities.com> References: <NDBBLOMCGLFPEPCPJEKKIEBOCAAA.troy@picus.com>
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Troy Settle wrote: > > Get a scanner that plugs inline with the keyboard. The scanner then sends > text to the keyboard buffer. FreeBSD won't give a hoot that it's scanned or > typed. This is definitely the easy way. However, these bar code scanners are mostly toy versions of the real thing. My definition of a real thing is a scanner that can read each bar code on the blades of a running fan. That works out to be about 90 good scans a second. The toys are the simple wands, which can force re-reads because of more frequent bad reads. They all have problems with attitude of the scanner to the bar code because of reflections. The ones I have used and programmed around were usually associated with the serial port, use lasers, have a button or trigger to start the scan, and read without touching the bar code like most of the wands do. It doesn't take a lot of reads to wear out a bar code if you rub it during the read. There was a device handler on a Unix box that fed information into a program waiting for I/O. The bar code scanners returned an ASCII string via a query to the handler. They even have some bar code scanners that were hooked up via radio. You can inventory or what ever as you walked around a manufacturing plant. I helped with setting up the radio but not any of the data phases on the radio project. These programs were all pretty KISS simple FORTRAN programs. They were still on HP 1000's because of the number of four line terminals that these really old machines could handle. The device handlers were probably written 15-20 years ago, which was long before I got involved. Kent > > -Troy > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Ken > > Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2000 14:12 > > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > > Subject: Bar Code Scanning > > > > > > Greets: > > > > Anybody know of any bar code scanning packages for FBSD? > > > > Thanks--kg > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA mailto:kstewart@3-cities.com http://www.3-cities.com/~kstewart/index.html http://daily.daemonnews.org/ SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) @ Home http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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