[xattt]

Core memory unlocked. Somewhere deep in the bellows of my electronics pile, I have an ancient HP barcode reader box that plugged inline with an AT keyboard. Into this box plugged a reader pen that you dragged across a barcode.

Once read, it would send the barcode number as keyboard commands. It was a very tactile experience.

[yellowapple]

Meanwhile, USB barcode scanners nowadays work by basically being a keyboard, so I guess we've come full circle.

[xattt]

I think keyboard emulation was always the way most barcode readers operated.