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.
> #_#_#_#_#_#_# < > ##_##_#_##_## < > ##___#_##_#_# <
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* 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.
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* Use `>`=1 and `<`=0
> ><><><><><><> < > >><>><><>><>> < > >><<<><>><><> <
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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 random, halfbakery