• Well, what did you expect?

    glgorman • 08/12/2024 at 03:09 • 0 comments

    I could not believe how simple that was.  Someone loaned me a "Zebra" brand USB-style barcode scanner, and I learned that to "test" it, all that I had to do was plug it into any USB port and launch an application such as Microsoft Word, or Notepad - that accepts text input.  

    So naturally, I had to try out my very own version of "Propeller Debug Terminal" which I was using for doing experiments with the Propeller P2 Eval board, that I wrote back in 2019.  And low and behold, the Debug Terminal application sees the scanner as if it were just another "keyboard", and I get line after line of numbers when I scan things!  Oh, LA, LA!

    Then I found a website called "barcodelookup.com" and sure enough, when I copy and paste the digits of one of my scans, I get not only a description of the product but a picture of the product - now how cool is that?

    Now let's be honest - I haven't checked whether this particular site, or any site offers an API, which could get interesting, really fast, Otherwise, there is still the idea of manual product entry.   Or of printing "custom bar codes" - since I found that an old betting slip from William Hill seems to scan just fine!

    Or else, "How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the long lectures in quantum mechanics".  If you know what I am talking about.