Snipped a bit. Comments inline.

>I ended up implementing it by just dropping the ActiveX control on a form. I didn't use vfpcom/bindevents. Here is what the code looks like in my oncomm event:
>
>*** ActiveX Control Event ***
>
>***section one - this works
>thisform.fpc_ScanData=this.input
>if chr(13) $ thisform.fpc_Scandata
> thisform.fpc_ScanData=substr(thisform.fpc_scandata, 1, len(thisform.fpc_scandata)-1)
>else
> *wait wind 'there was no chr(13)'
>endif
>this.parent.txtbarcodedata.value=thisform.fpc_ScanData
>this.parent.txtbarcodedata.refresh()
>oBCinput.ProcessBCInputData(thisform.fpc_ScanData)
>go bottom in messagequeue
>go bottom in curtasksstarted
>go bottom in taskscompleted
>this.parent.txtbarcodedata.value=''
>thisform.refresh()
>***end section one
>
>*** section two - this did not work
>if .f.
>local lcNextChar
>lcNextChar = this.input
>

*** Problem right here. What if there is more than 1 character in this.input???
Try:

IF chr(13)&lcNextChar vs.

>if lcNextChar=chr(13)

Any time you do your this.input, the entire buffer is read. If RThreshold=1, there should only be 1 character in this.input. I would NOT bet my life on that being the case. I would rather take a look at
.inbuffercount and test how many characters are really in the buffer before reading with this.input. Just my personal preference.

> this.parent.txtbarcodedata.value=thisform.fpc_ScanData
> this.parent.txtbarcodedata.refresh()
> oBCinput.ProcessBCInputData(thisform.fpc_ScanData)
> go bottom in messagequeue
> go bottom in curtasksstarted
> go bottom in taskscompleted
> thisform.refresh()
>else
> thisform.fpc_ScanData=thisform.fpc_ScanData+lcNextChar
>endif
>
>endif
>****************
>Please note the following about the code above:
>
>1)The code I originally wrote is in 'section two' (now commented out with if .f.). This code didn't work. Before I tested, I was under the impression that the oncomm event would fire each time a character was added to the input buffer, and that therefore I could build the string one character at a time, until I received a chr(13). But it turned out that the oncomm event only fired once, and stored my whole string to the input buffer.
>
>Note that I don't have the doevents statement anywhere in here. Do I need it?

Maybe. Put one in and check the result :>)

>
>2) So, I recoded it as per 'section one', where I store this.input only once. But please note that I also have the following code:
>if chr(13) $ thisform.fpc_Scandata
> thisform.fpc_ScanData=substr(thisform.fpc_scandata, 1, len(thisform.fpc_scandata)-1)
>else
> *wait wind 'there was no chr(13)'
>endif
>
>I put in this code to account for a behaviour that doesn't make sense to me. When the form is active (the cursor is in the txtbarcodedata text box, which is a read only textbox), i.e., the form has the focus, a chr(13) is stored to the input string. But, oddly, if the form is minimized, and/or the vfp application itself is minimized, the chr(13) doesn't get stored to the input string.
>

How are you calling the form? From a startup.prg or ?
If from a prg, try:

SET DELETED ON
SET EXCLUSIVE OFF
ON SHUTDOWN QUIT
DO FORM yourcommform
READ EVENTS
CLEAR ALL
RELEASE ALL

or something similar. With your form set as a top level, this will work fine maximized or minimized and events will fire fine. With no DOEVENTS.

>One of the main reasons I wanted to go this route, was so that I could have an application that didn't rely on the cursor being in a textbox.
>
>I don't understand why the state of the form should have any relationship whatsoever to what is stored to the input buffer.
>
>I must be missing something here!