[archive] POS terminals

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 05 February 2003]

I am looking for a POS terminal which I would be able to integrate into a back office application written in AcuCobol.

It must be able to scan bar codes and process credit cards and be easy to use. The application is for a gift shop.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

This is a rather difficult question to provide a direct answer to. Because the answer will depend on which country that is your target market, and possibly also the area of the country.

I know that there are several POS implementations in the world that has its software based in ACUCOBOL-GT, this includes a register, bar code scanner, pole displays receip printers and magnetic card readers.

To get references, you will have to contact your Acucorp, Inc. account manager which will help you further.

However, a few points generally speaking:

* a quick surf of the net uncovered http://www.pos-printer.com
as a nice way to start.

* Most bar code scanners are designed to be hooked up on
the keyboard cable and automatically feed the code into
your keyboard buffer so a normal ACCEPT will do.

* Processing credit cards include some terminal hardware which
I know at least in some countries are managed by banks,
I suggest you just ask a business that has a terminal how
they got it, and nest back to the provider, which certainly
will tell you the "where and how" about terminals.

* Both pole displays and terminals tend to use serial port IO,
this cannot be accomplished by normal file IO, hence you
will need a mechanism to communicate with. There are other
ACUCOBOL-GT users that has accomplished this, so feel
secured it can be done.

Finally, note that working at a register is something quite different than doing a normal computer task. I suggest you start take notice of it next time you go to the store, for every task the clerk does, try to imagine how that would be solved in your application. Remember they are standing there all day long, 1 keystroke less, makes easily minutes for them during a day of doing the same taks.

Hope this helps.

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 05 February 2003]

I am looking for a POS terminal which I would be able to integrate into a back office application written in AcuCobol.

It must be able to scan bar codes and process credit cards and be easy to use. The application is for a gift shop.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

This is a rather difficult question to provide a direct answer to. Because the answer will depend on which country that is your target market, and possibly also the area of the country.

I know that there are several POS implementations in the world that has its software based in ACUCOBOL-GT, this includes a register, bar code scanner, pole displays receip printers and magnetic card readers.

To get references, you will have to contact your Acucorp, Inc. account manager which will help you further.

However, a few points generally speaking:

* a quick surf of the net uncovered http://www.pos-printer.com
as a nice way to start.

* Most bar code scanners are designed to be hooked up on
the keyboard cable and automatically feed the code into
your keyboard buffer so a normal ACCEPT will do.

* Processing credit cards include some terminal hardware which
I know at least in some countries are managed by banks,
I suggest you just ask a business that has a terminal how
they got it, and nest back to the provider, which certainly
will tell you the "where and how" about terminals.

* Both pole displays and terminals tend to use serial port IO,
this cannot be accomplished by normal file IO, hence you
will need a mechanism to communicate with. There are other
ACUCOBOL-GT users that has accomplished this, so feel
secured it can be done.

Finally, note that working at a register is something quite different than doing a normal computer task. I suggest you start take notice of it next time you go to the store, for every task the clerk does, try to imagine how that would be solved in your application. Remember they are standing there all day long, 1 keystroke less, makes easily minutes for them during a day of doing the same taks.

Hope this helps.

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 05 February 2003]

I am looking for a POS terminal which I would be able to integrate into a back office application written in AcuCobol.

It must be able to scan bar codes and process credit cards and be easy to use. The application is for a gift shop.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Thanks!