SDATABAR Manual Page

     NAME
          sdatabar - Convert an SDATA file into HP41 barcode

     SYNOPSIS
          sdatabar [-e] < input_file > barcode_file

          sdatabar -?

     DESCRIPTION
          sdatabar is a program that reads an SDATA file from standard
          input and writes the corresponding HP41 barcode file to
          standard output. Records in the SDATA file containing
          numeric data are turned into type 6 barcode rows, while
          those containing alpha data are turned into type 7 rows.
          Other SDATA records cannot be represented by HP41 barcode,
          and are skipped, giving a suitable error message.

          The output of sdatabar can be piped to a suitable barcode
          printing program such as barps

     OPTIONS
          -e   HP82153 barcode wands with the version 1E ROM have a
               bug which means they cannot read numeric data barcode
               rows containing 10 or more data bytes. Unfortunately,
               some HP41 real numbers require 10 bytes to represent
               them in barcode format. If the -e option is given to
               sdatabar, the program attempts to reduce the length of
               the barcode by omitting the decimal point and adjusting
               the exponent to compensate. This is not always
               possible, in which case, a suitable message is written
               to standard error, and the last mantissa digit is
               omitted from the barcode.

          -?   Print a message giving usage to standard error and exit

     REFERENCES
          The format of HP41 barcode is given in the book Creating
          your own HP41 Barcode (Hewlett-Packard)

          The format of the barcode file written by sdatabar is given
          in barcode(5)

     EXAMPLES
          If data1 is an sdata file, and postscript is a postscript
          printer then

          sdatabar < data1 | barps 'Data

          will print that file on the postscript printer.

     BUGS
          The HP82153 wand can't accept data other than standard

          numeric or alpha data, so some sdata files cannot be
          translated correctly. Version 1E wands cannot read some
          numeric data barcode, as described above.

     AUTHOR
          sdatabar was written by Tony Duell, ard.p850ug1@gmail.com,
          and has been placed under the GNU Public License version 2.0