[maemo-developers] mbarcode/maemo-barcode dialog oddity and progress report

[From: Simon Pickering]

> >> So I'm more than happy to do this (after I look at libgdigicam to
work
> >> out how to focus the N900's camera and turn the LED on), as long as
> >> people want to use it, I don't want to waste time chopping things
up if
> >> no-one wants to use it afterwards.
> 
> I want to use it. =)
> 
> An easy-to-use wrapper like that can encourage the creation of scanner

> software for business applications: consider the use of nokia internet

> tablets as part of a cost-effective distributed system for inventory.
> 
> Many specialized scanning devices on the market are disgustingly high:

> for about $2000, you get a mobile computer/scanner with stats 
> (Intel XScale PXA255 Processor @ 400MHz, 64MB RAM, Windows Mobile
2003) 
> that the N810 can wipe the floor with. At lower prices, you devices
with 
> archaic OSs and hardware specs. At $700, you get just the scanner 
> without the computer. The nokia internet tablets are a steal!

Well controlling the N900 camera is reasonably straight forward using
the gst_photography_*() commands, I'll write up a page and stick that on
the wiki asap.

I've moved the backend (i.e. the decoding part) to use zbar for 1D and
QR codes and am still using libdmtx for Datamatrix codes (would be nice
to get that linked in as part of zbar so there's just one api to deal
with). I also just uploaded the zbar files to the autobuilder (and it
failed as I forgot to add a Python dep).

So basically all of the low level components are (or will soon be) in
place. 

Will keep the list updated with the progress of the wiki & zbar
building.

On the topic of mBarcode itself, I've got the autofocus working, and you
can grab a test code here for the N900 (and a zbar deb too):
http://people.bath.ac.uk/enpsgp/nokia770/mbarcode/test/

I'll (try to) debianise it this evening and also check the Diablo code
to see that it still builds after all the hacking around the N900 stuff
has needed.

Cheers,


Simon