Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!mvax.cc.ic.ac.uk!sunb!umapd51
From: umapd51@sunb.cc.ic.ac.uk (W.A.C. Mier-Jedrzejowicz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Barcode for the 48sx
Summary: HP 48SX Barcode would be good
Message-ID: <1990Mar13.031321.408@cc.ic.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Mar 90 03:13:21 GMT
References: <25F6AB07.12150@orion.oac.uci.edu>
Sender: news@cc.ic.ac.uk (USENET News System)
Reply-To: umapd51@cc.ic.ac.uk (Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz)
Organization: Imperial College Computer Center, London, UK
Lines: 21

I asked Dan Terpak (head of Corvallis' calculator division) about 
HP 48SX barcode when he was over
here in the UK at the HP 48SX introduction. He seemed a little surprised
at the idea and said HP had certainly not thought of doing this.  As I
have published a book with HP-41 barcode, and am chairman of a club
which publishes HP-41 barcode in most issues of its journal (8 times a
year), I thought this would be an obvious thing to do. Even the humble
Psion Organiser uses an (HP!) barcode reader. For the time being I plan
to write programs which will let an HP-41 read text barcode then fire it
into an HP 48SX through the infrared link. The worst part will be
writing a program to convert HP 48SX programs into HP-41 text data, but
it would certainly be possible on a PC. Barcode is a MUCH better way to
transfer programs included in a book than including a floppy with the
book and then having to deal with a/ pirated copies, b/ copies which
don't work.  HP do not see it this way - to them barcode is for
industrial and commercial uses only.
Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz,
Space Physics, Imperial College, London
BITNET: MIER @ SPVA.PH.IC.AC.UK
Disclaimer - the above are ideas, not opinions, certainly not those of
my employer.