[Info-vax] how to display bar code label on a session from a "text"

[Malcolm Dunnett]

ed_lin wrote:
>  We are running Alpha vms 7.3-2, our factory floor use KEA! 340 on
> windows environment to run vms based application,  our floor
> supervisors would like us to generate barcode label on the screen so
> technician can use bar code gun  to scan the label to reduce input
> error,  they prefer 2D labeling scheme, but I would be happy if we can
> even produce code 128 or code 39 on the screen, does any one know how
> to translate a 'given' text string to bar code label on the vt
> emulated screen?   Your help will be highly appreciated.

I agree with the earlier poster, finding a barcode reader that will 
actually read barcodes from the screen might be difficult.

One alternative might be to get a cheap label printer that does barcode. 
It would be dead simple then to have your program generate the right 
sequences to turn on the printer, send the code and then turn the 
printer off. Another advantage would be that the printer would do all 
the work of creating the barcode, you'd just have to send it the data in 
ASCII (with some command sequences to select size, font, etc).

Of course depending on what the physical constraints of your shop floor 
are (space, dirt, etc) and the number of barcodes you'd need to produce 
in a day this might not be practical.

see 
http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index/products/printers/desktop.html 
for some example printers.