Without some sort of supporting software to compress the data, you would
need 7 bits of UPC data per character to simply scan a line directly
into the basic prompt. A one page listing in a magazine would be several
pages long of barcodes. The barcode on products is just a short number
and it is the database that links it to the product and prices.
There were some experiments with using barcode-like formats to enter
programs, but the machines and magazines I am aware of either used a
proprietary format akin to QRcode and a multi-element sensor or required
a special program to unpack the compressed data (tokenized keywords, for
example.)
On 6/21/2024 5:48 PM, J S wrote:
Hey everyone,
I had a question. And it might already be solved but I don't see an
answer on how to do it.
I'm a recent owner of both an 100 and a 200 model machines. I also
have a barcode pen. I've seen lots of information about using it for
data entry and business type applications but I have not seen any
information on a way to use it to load lines of programming.
Back in the old magazines you could get the printout of a BASIC
program and type them in. I had read a long time ago about the
possibility of converting those programs to lines of barcodes that
could make programs easier to enter, albeit line by line.
The idea would be that you would load a program that would let you
scan those barcodes one by one and save it to a data file. That file,
when closed could be renamed as the BA file and ran normally.
Any help or ideas would be appreciated
