Ok well I am not a programming student, I’m just a convenience store manager who’s trying to get a Magtek check reader to behave like a keyboard. The reason for this is simple to understand. Every day I receive about 70-80 WIC checks. As a vendor, I must submit the account numbers of each check to the State Treasures office. There are three ways to submit the checks, A. By phone, which is just dialing 1800# and punching in the numbers through the keypad. B. Using VWIX.ca.gov to submit the numbers. C. Using FTP. Options B and C are quicker but at the end of the day my hand is sore from all the 10-key. That’s not including the 10key on the cash register either. So I searched for solution and found the only solution was to upgrade the $200 register to a $4000 POS system that came with a whole bunch of bells and whistles that the store owner sees as unnecessary. So the next best thing was buy a $120 check reader, which at the time, I thought it would work like a keyboard. Well it doesn’t. I contacted Magtek (the OEM) and they just sent me some drivers and fancier files that don’t seem to do anything. So I contacted Magtek again they said I had to find someone to write a code with the files they sent that best suits my needs. So the best way to suit me needs is to find out how to write code myself. But there is a gazalion ways to write code and I don’t want to take a class that will teach me a whole bunch of stuff I don’t need to know. I just want advice on what I should learn to do this relatively simple task. I used to program TI-83 calcs long time ago so I’m not completely clueless on programming.
If there is an online tutorial on what I need to learn that would be awesome.

they must have given you some type of files with the magtek.... such as a software development kit, manual, docs.... etc....

i would look in there for what kind of prog. language you need to code in so that you can talk to the reader....