Barcodes

[Tim Chase]

>> My company needs a small inventory management app. Does
>> python have any libraries to help with reading and writing
>> bar codes?
> 
> I've written bar code apps and python really doesn't enter
> into that part of things.  Printers generally have bar code
> printing capabilities so you just send the right escape
> sequences and you get the bar codes. To read them, bar code
> readers scan and translate before sending the values through
> typically a keyboard wedge or serial port.

To add to what Emile mentions, most barcode readers present a 
keyboard-wedge interface, so that scanning a barcode merely 
appears as if you typed it at the keyboard (USB readers show up 
as a HID profile).  Often they'll have configuration barcodes 
that you can scan to tweak the profile (such as pressing <enter>, 
<tab> or an arrow-key after sending the barcode; controlling beep 
tone & volume, etc).

For printing barcodes, you can use any number of solutions -- the 
most popular usually just involves installing a "barcode font" 
and then rendering text in that font to your desired output 
canvas.  I believe there are some native rendering solutions as 
well, but I've not investigated since the font method was more 
than sufficient for my wants.

-tkc