BarCode reader API to use on Windows Mobile

Question

Hi

I am very new to software development, I am looking for an API/SDK which I can use with Windows Phone O/S.

Any Ideas?

Thanks

Answer 1

Nothing in the CTP SDK or any info provided by Microsoft indicates that the first releases of Windows Phone will have any sort of barcode scanner support. The phone is targeted for consumer use, and barcode scanning is not a common consumer activity.

As far as Windows Mobile/Windows CE goes, however, barcode scanners are very OEM specific. Generally they fall into two categories:

• A scan wege that just inserts scannerd charaters into the keyboard stream. In these cases you don't have to do anything "special" as the application will see scanned data as if it were typed.
• A proprietary scanner. The OEMs( Symbol, Intermec, etc) don't have a hardware interface standard, so the devices ship with their own proprietary SDKs to control the built-in scanners.