[Zope] Barcodes, magnetic cards, etc.

[Jan H. Haul]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, Erik Enge wrote:
> 
> > And, by the way, do you know if there exist a magnetic card scanner
> > that plugs in to the PS/2?  And if yes, which information would get
> > from such a card?  Just a number, or are there other possibilities?
> >
> [Curtis Maloney]
>
> What is on the card is, strangely enough, what is on the card.  Magstripe
> readers commonly interface to ps/2 keyboard ports via a 'chok' or 'wedge',
> which just plugs inline with your regular keyboard.

Several vendors (afair, Keytronic and Cherry at least) make
keyboards with integrated magnetic or smart card readers, both in
regular PS/2 format as well as smaller keyboards for the POS
(cash register) market.
In effect, these keyboards behave such that when you swipe a
card, the contents of the selected track (magnetic cards usually
have three tracks, see the relevant ISO standards for details) is
"typed". Often, the magnetic card data is prefixed by an
identifier, but that's about it. If you swipe a card (or scan a
barcode with your keyboard-attached barcode reader) while in a
text editor, you'll see what the reader "types" just as if the
user typed it.

Most of the barcodes are standardized, albeit by different
standards bodies. UPC, EAN and such are used on food cans and the
like. 2 of 5 and similar are used for various purposes, e.g.,
labelling sample bottles for medical labs so you are not treated
for that other person's ailments...

Use your favorite search engine on bar codes and magnetic cards.
This is not really a Zope issue, as Zope never notices that the
article ID or whatsnot was scanned, not typed.

Jan