Zxing not decoding 1D barcode 128 when it only holds one character

Question

When I encode one character as a 1D code 128 barcode, i.e. 'F' or 'M', Zxing doesn't decode it. I first found this issue in my own app where I integrated the zxing source code. Then I checked the original Zxing standalone app as well, just to make sure it wasn't an issue with my integration, but also the standard Zxing app does not decode barcodes of 1 character length.

For example:

doesn't work.

But if the encoded string in the barcode is two or more characters long, i.e. 'AB', 'FF' or 'MM' it works fine. Why does it not work with 1 character length? A bug in zxing?

Answer 1

It was a limitation built into the code in the past to reduce false positives. Based on your bug, it's been found to be no longer necessary and has been removed in the current svn head.