Barcodes are everywhere, but they tend to be graphic based only.

For printers or displays that can only handle text for some reason. It might be useful to have a barcode that is essentially ASCII art based. The reader ideally would still be easier to code compared compared to text OCR.

e.g.

* Use `#`=1 and `_`=0, since they are of the same width.

> #_#_#_#_#_#_# <
> ##_##_#_##_## <
> ##___#_##_#_# <

---------------------

* Use `/`=1 and `\`=0

> /\/\/\/\/\/\/ <
> //\//\/\//\// <
> //\\\/\//\/\/ <

Not very aligned, so it's best used in a 1d context.

---------------------

* Use `/\`=1 and `\/`=0, since it still works aright. Might take up more space, but might also be easier to read.

> /\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\ <
> /\/\\//\/\\//\\//\/\\//\/\ <
> /\/\\/\/\//\\//\/\\//\\//\ <

Plus you can notice that '//' occurs at the edge of 0->1 . And '\\' occurs when 1->0.

-----

* Use `>`=1 and `<`=0

> ><><><><><><> <
> >><>><><>><>> <
> >><<<><>><><> <

------

edit:

* Use `|`=1 and `:`=0

> |:|:|:|:|:|:| <
> ||:||:|:||:|| <
> ||:::|:||:|:| <

-- mofosyne, Nov 14 2014

Excellent, 4 competing non-interoperable standards already, and we haven't even started!
-- pocmloc, Nov 14 2014



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