22. The method of claim 17 , wherein the steps of selecting the candidate barcode character for decoding, computing the candidate distance value, identifying the bin containing the candidate distance value, and attempting to decode the candidate barcode character against the valid barcode characters in the bin having the candidate distance value are performed by a processor having a clock speed, the steps being further characterized by a decoding parameter, the decoding parameter being less than 2,800 processor clock cycles per character comparison.
22. The method of claim 17 , wherein the steps of selecting the candidate barcode character for decoding, computing the candidate distance value, identifying the bin containing the candidate distance value, and attempting to decode the candidate barcode character against the valid barcode characters in the bin having the candidate distance value are performed by a processor having a clock speed, the steps being further characterized by a decoding parameter, the decoding parameter being less than 2,800 processor clock cycles per character comparison. 23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the decoding parameter is less than 1,400 processor clock cycles per character comparison.