Henri Sivonen wrote:
I don't know how niche thing it is to actually own a dedicated USB barcode reader, but where I live, using at least one Web app that supports bar code reading (by having a text input requiring the bar code reader can emulate a keyboard) is as mainstream as Web app usage gets (banking).
Agreed, but barcodes are a technical aspect of input rather than data type comparable to type=email, type=url etc. As you say, when barcode input is an option, it's also an option to use normal keyboard input (though a browser could well use e.g. restricted on-screen keyboard if it knows what to expect). Moreover, the word "barcode" has multiple meanings.
So I think that if the input of data commonly available as simple linear barcodes deserves a type of its own in HTML, it should be analyzed which logical data type would be involved.
For example, the GTIN product codes (still often called EAN codes especially when in barcode format, or TUN or DUN codes) are in wide and increasing use and might be considered for inclusion. A browser could implement an input type for them using a barcode reader when available, otherwise using some method for input of digits together with checksum checking. This would be useful, though I don't know whether it's worth the specification and implementation effort (and things like this won't be really useful except after several years when all significant browsers have real support).
Yucca
