From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-09-21T13:31:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Barcode scanner app


On Sep 20, 2007, at 1:40 PM, Marcin Raczkowski wrote:

> Pieter Jongsma wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I need to program an application for my school. It needs to scan a
>> barcode on a pass, compare it to a database and then display a color
>> (fullscreen) signalling if the student is or isn't allowed at a  
>> party.
>> Now I'm looking for a toolkit of some sort to wait for a signal  
>> from the
>> barcode scanner (which works just like a keyboard) and then display a
>> fullscreen signalcolor. Any ideas?
>> Thanks in advance,
>> pieter.
> if it acts like keyboard, try ruby/SDL it's simplest solution to  
> get graphics in application.
>
>
You could use Gosu easily, the game library for the graphics, very  
very easy. Some kb/gamepad input is already defined, but you could  
easily 'include' anything needed for the scanner.
Thing to note, game libraries are not just useful for games! They  
make simple GUIs easy to build!
If the scanner has a driver with API you should be able to pass its  
info to any app as you please.

Another alternative would be to do something like a local machine  
Rails app. There's easy database integration and a web-browser based  
GUI.