HP41 barcodes for programs on the site

[Mark]

I've tried more than a few times to get Dan McDonald's programs working on my Mac (MacOS X 10.3.9) but to no avail. The truetype fonts from various sources just don't appear correctly when displayed or printed (they look like boxes not barcodes) in excel. If anyone else has a any suggestions I'd really appreciate the help.

In addition could someone think about helping by attaching a PDF with barcodes to each of the programs listed in the sites library. Nothing would be easier than printing and scanning the barcode with a wand?

I'd like to compliment all involved in in this site, David and all contributers

[Dan M]

Mark,

I'm sorry my program doesn't work for you... Have you tried Leo Duran's most excellent set of program tools for working with these types of files?

http://www.hpmuseum.org/software/41uc.htm

I don't know if they will work with the MacOS or not, but they are absolutely the best for the OS that I happen to use.

I use Leo's program (and not mine... :-) ) when I need to get barcodes or program listings or switch around between formats.

There is at least one bug in my program logic regarding checksums that I have not been able to fix, which is another reason to use Leo's program if you can.

Best regards,

Dan McDonald
Bellows Falls, Vermont
USA

[Tony Duell]

Probably not a lot of use to you, my my LIF Utilities for Linux include an HP41 barcode generator.

It's actually 3 programs. One takes in an HP41 binary program and outputs a 'barcode' file. The second does the same thing for an HP41 data file. The third takes in a barcode file and outputs postscript to send to a printer.

The barcode file format is documented in one of the manpages in the distribution. It's basically a set of records, one for each line of barcode. The first byte of each record specifies the number of bytes in that line, that's followed by said bytes. The printer driver has to add the start and end bars, and turn each byte into the appropriate pattern of wide and narrow bars.

I am not sure how easy it would be to port these programs. They're written in C, and I didn't do anything particularly odd, so it should be possible. Of course I use a command line interface so you'd have to modify that bit for a GUI- based system.

Similarly, it should be easy to make drivers/translators from the barcode file to other printers and graphical file formats. Feel free to do so...

[Christoph Klug]

Dear Mark,

For HP41 barcode plot I use EMU41 plus virtual SKWIDINK module. Using a laser printer the results are really nice. For running EMU41 you need DOS or WIN95/98/2000/XP/NT operating system. More details about this system solution you find in the HP-museum article forum item 311 HP41-PC gateway & emulator....

With best regards - Christoph Klug