Here’s a quick little experiment to show the current time, as a time_t number of seconds since the Linux epoc, displayed as a code39 barcode. That feels nice and geeky š
This is just a proof of concept, I doubt the barcode will scan. It’s based upon c39 font typed into mspaint and cut up into pieces š The fun parts were..
- Chopping up the barcode symbols. Ā It was a flashback to old school icon editing
- Getting WordPress to not muck up the javascript – use HTML view & check it again if you switch back to visual editor.
- Put a “window.onload = MyFunc();” at the bottom of your script block. Feels dirty overwritting the onload event & not adding it to a list of functions to call
- switched to using window.addEventListener – feels sooo much cleaner than window.onload
- preloading the images to cut down on flicker as an image is used for the first time
- getting everything to work in my non-primary browsers
Now to search for the right css that will keep the div tag from word wrapping it’s image contents. Ā That initial load on some browsers is annoying. If you care to do something like this – view the source – it’s all there. Longer term
- Test that the generated c39 symbology is valid. Ā I’m sure theĀ asterisks at the start and end are fine – I’veĀ stared at enough barcodes to recognize that at least š
- Shrink it & put it in the side bar
- Maybe do a QR Code clock? Ā That could be interesting
I know people bag on c++ (for many valid reasons) but it still amazes me to learn something new: read only members using const references. It’s even better when a c++ non-fan teaches you about it. Thanks Nico!
class Test
{
public:
Test() : readOnlyVersion(m_writableVersion)
{}
const SomeType & readOnlyVersion;
private:
SomeType m_writableVersion;
};
Never having a need, I had always filtered out reference data members – I just categorized them with static members and their special initialization. Now that I see a use case, I’m basking in the “Ah that makes total sense” moment.