Thoughts -> Re: classiccmp server

[blstuart at bellsouth.net]

In message <200410051751.SAA02663 at citadel.metropolis.local>, Stan Barr writes:
>Ron Hudson <ron.hudson at sbcglobal.net>
>> I once was wondering if a backup software could be written that writes 
>> to laser printer.
>> 
>> Backups would be read in with a scanner..
>> 
>I remember reading about a system like that, wrote data as a pattern of
>dots on a laser printer and read using a primitive scanner (it was a 
>while ago and definitely on-topic).  Developed by someone in Germany
>I think.  A query in various newsgroups a while back turned up no info.

You folks are bad for the sanity.  You've gotten me thinking
about implementing a PDF417[1] reader.  I've done some barcode
decoding stuff at work, but I've managed to avoid doing any
2-D stuff.  Now I may not be able to resist.

[1] For those who may not be familiar with it, PDF417 is a standard
2-D barcode.  It's something like a bunch of really short (vertically)
1-D barcodes stacked on top of each other.  It's not the densest
thing in the world, but you could get a lot more on a piece of
paper than printing text to OCR later.  Most FedEx Ground labels
have examples of this code.  (UPS labels have a different 2-D
code called Maxicode.)

Brian L. Stuart