HP-41 Barcode Scanner and Generator

[gomi42]

Hello again,

I haven't been here for quite some time. I'm happy to be back.

Almost exactly 10 years ago I release the FocalComp and FocalDecomp command line tools. Both tools are now combined into one Windows application named FocalMaster.

FocalMaster got 3 new features:

1: FocalMaster can scan barcodes from image files and convert them to HP-41 FOCAL programs. Just add all images in the correct order and start the scan process.

2: FocalMaster can now create barcode to PDF (besides the already existing JPG creation). The PDF will contain all pages in one file. It is a real PDF with fully scalable grafics, not simply included bitmaps.

3: FocalMaster can display created barcodes on the screen.

FocalMaster is open source and its available here plus some instructions: github. Under Releases pick up the latest FocalMaster.zip. It contains a single executable, just run it, it doesn't need any installation. It requires a .Net 4.8 Framework installation which is default under Windows 10 and 11.

I tested the barcode scanner with all programs, printed as barcodes only, in the Wand manual. The scanner isn't perfect but works so far. Let me know what you think, let me know if you encounter unreadable barcodes.

Michael