JPH03142271A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the correct result of printing in conformity with an intention by storing a fixed quantity of printing data received, discriminating to which of each coding scheme the printing data belongs and forming a visible picture based on the printing data stored according to the coding scheme. CONSTITUTION:printing data are stored by interruption process in a ring buffer 201 through interruption processing. Data are read from addresses displayed by a pointer 202, the values of the pointer are updated, and the grammer check of a command mode and analysis are conducted. The presence of coincidence through collating with all commands to the command mode A stored in a ROM 2 and the grammer error of the control commands are decided. Consequently, when normal commands as the command mode A of aimed data and the absence of even grammer errors are decided, drawing based on the commands is executed to a frame memory in a RAM 3. Accordingly, the correct result of printing can be acquired without coincidence with a control coding scheme output from an electronic equipment connected each time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printing device, and more particularly, to a printing device that can perform print processing on print data of different code systems.

[Prior Art] It is well known that printers usually print corresponding characters by outputting character codes, but various control codes are used to improve printing. The control code includes, for example, one that specifies the line pitch or whether to add ruled lines, or one that causes a figure to be drawn by the control code itself.

However, this control code system is not the same for each manufacturer (manufacturing company), and a problem arises in that it is possible to connect to a personal computer of company A, but not to a personal computer of company B.

Against this background, devices have appeared that are capable of printing output by switching between two or more control code systems (hereinafter referred to as command modes).

Note that this is not the only reason why devices with multiple command modes have appeared.

For example, when developing a device that is capable of more advanced printing due to the development of electronic technology, the device will have a unique command mode. However, due to the demand to be able to connect it to conventional electronic devices, it has come to include the conventional command mode as well.

In any case, normally when using a printing device that has multiple command modes, either a switching command indicating which mode is to be printed is given, or a switch etc. provided on the control panel of the printing device is used to select one of the modes. is now selected.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Therefore, when printing using such a printing device, care must be taken to avoid outputting print data in a command mode different from the currently set command mode. The goal is to avoid doing so. In other words, when printing, it is necessary to always check whether the printing mode of the printing device matches the command mode of the host computer. This is because if not, a problem will occur in which printing will not be done correctly.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device that can obtain correct print results as intended without having to match each code system output by connected electronic equipment. It is.

[Means for Solving the Problem] A printing apparatus of the present invention that solves this problem has the configuration shown below. That is, the printing device is capable of printing print data of different code systems, and includes a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data, and a storage means for storing a predetermined amount of received print data. The apparatus includes a discriminating means for discriminating, and an image forming means for forming a visible image based on the print data stored in the front storage means according to the code system discriminated by the discriminating means.

[Operation] In the configuration of the present invention, the received print data is stored in the storage means. Then, it is determined which code system the stored print data actually belongs to.

Then, according to this determined code system, the stored print data is analyzed to form a visible image.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the embodiment, a case will be described in which there are two types of command modes, A and B.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus in this embodiment.

In the figure, 1 is a CPU that controls the entire device, and 2 is a CPU that controls the entire device.
PUI operation processing procedure (flowcharts in Figures 3 to 5)
and character patterns, as well as all commands for command modes A and B as tables, 3
A RAM is used as a work area for the CPU 1 and is capable of storing one page worth of image data to be printed.

Further, this RAM 3 is also used for storing received data. 4 is a printing mechanism interface, and 5 is a printing mechanism section. In the embodiment, a laser beam printer is used as the printing mechanism section 5, but it is of course possible to use other printers such as a wire dot printer or a thermal transfer printer. Printing mechanism interface 4 is RAM3
This part converts the developed image data into a signal in a format suitable for the mechanism of the printing mechanism unit 5. In the embodiment, 8-bit data is read out and shifted by l bits in synchronization with a pixel clock (not shown). and outputs it to the printing mechanism section 5 as a video signal.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a print data input section, which receives print data output from a host computer or the like. Reference numeral 8 denotes an operation section for giving various instructions to the device itself, and includes a display section for displaying the status of the device.

FIG. 2 shows the storage state of received data in the RAM 3 in the embodiment.

The received data is stored in a ring buffer 201 provided in RAMB in units of bytes.

In the figure, 202 is a pointer that stores the address of unprocessed data in the ring buffer 201, and 203 is a pointer that stores the storage address of the next received data. Note that the pointer 202 or the pointer 20
After the address No. 3 points to the last address of the ring buffer 201, it is updated to the first address of the buffer 201. As shown in the figure, the control code in the print data in this embodiment is, for example, an escape sequence (“I
B, a control code that starts with "" is adopted.

Next, the process of receiving data and storing it in the ring buffer 201 will be explained according to the flowchart of FIG.

The flowchart in the same figure shows that when data is received from an external host computer, the print data input unit 6
It starts by outputting an interrupt signal to.

Upon receiving an interrupt signal from the print data input unit 6, the CPU first inputs the received data from the print data input unit 6 (the received data is latched) in step S301.

Then, in step 5302, the input data is stored at the address position of pointer 203. Thereafter, in step 5303, the address of the pointer 203 is updated (normally, when it is incremented by "l" and it is at the final address, it is returned to the start address of the ring buffer 201), and the interrupt processing is completed.

Through the above-described processing, the received data is sequentially stored in the ring buffer 201, and at the same time, print output processing is also performed.

The contents of this printing process will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the power is turned on, first, initialization processing is performed in step S401 to make it possible to input print data. After this step 5S401, print data is stored in the ring buffer 201 by the interrupt processing described above.

In step 5402, data is read from the address indicated by pointer 202 (after reading, the value of the pointer is updated), and a syntax check and analysis of command mode A is performed.

Here, all commands for command mode A stored in the ROM 2 are compared to determine whether there is a match and whether or not the control command has a syntax error.

Now, as a result of this syntax check and analysis, if it is determined that the data of interest is a regular command in command mode A, and there is no syntax error, step 54
The process advances from step 03 to step 5404, and drawing is executed in the frame memory in RAMa based on the command. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step 5405, where it is determined whether drawing has been completed for one page of data. In this way, steps 3402 to 5405 are repeated, and when one page's worth of image data is constructed in the frame memory, the process proceeds to step 5406, where the printing mechanism ink and face 4 are sequentially applied to the image data. The data is output to the printing mechanism unit 5 via the printer and printed.

However, if it is determined from the grammar check/analysis result in step 5403 that the command is an undefined command or a grammar error, the process proceeds to step 5407. Here, it is determined whether the print data stored in the ring buffer 201 has already been subjected to grammar check and analysis based on command mode B.

If it is determined that command B has already been checked, the command of interest is neither command mode A nor B. In this case, normal error handling in command mode A (possibly an error on the host computer side) is performed in step 3408,
Proceed to step 5405. Also, in step 5407,
If it is determined that a check based on command mode B has not been performed, there is a strong possibility that the received data is for command mode B rather than command mode A. Therefore, in step 5409, the image drawn in the frame memory of the RAM 3 is cleared (to the initial state), the pointer 202, etc. are also returned to the state before processing in command mode A, and the process proceeds to step 5410.

In steps 5410 to 8418, processing for command mode B is performed, but since the processing contents correspond to steps 8402 to 5409, they are omitted here.

With the processing described above, it is possible to automatically determine which command mode the input print data is in, and to perform print processing corresponding to that command mode.

Further, in order to notify the user of the command mode determined by the printing device, the determination result may be displayed on the operation unit 8. This is convenient because the user can determine what the current print mode is.

Further, the operation unit 8 may be provided with a switch that forces the printing apparatus to change to the command mode.

In the above-described process, the case where there are two command modes has been described, but of course, there may be more than two command modes. In this case, the processes from step 5402 to step 5409 are prepared for each command mode, and they are
409 may be connected to step 5410.

In addition, when receiving enough print data (for example, one page), the received data is sequentially checked in each command mode, and in the process, the command mode in which a syntax error, etc. has occurred is checked. It is also possible to remove the commands from the check target and execute the printing process in the remaining command mode.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure in this case. Note that the configuration and the process of storing received data in the ring buffer 201 are the same as in the embodiment described above.

First, in step S501, initialization processing is performed to make it possible to input print data. And step Sho
From 1 onwards, print data is stored in the ring buffer 201 as needed according to the flowchart in FIG. Step 5
In step 502, wait until a certain amount of data is stored in the ring buffer 201 or until the amount of data stored in the ring buffer 201 does not change for a certain period of time, and in step 3503, the data in the ring buffer is
Checks and analyzes the syntax of each command mode. The syntax check and analysis are performed for each command until one page of data is reached, or for all data in the time memory, and the command is applied from among the command modes that have no syntax errors or undefined commands. Decide the mode. The command mode to be applied may be determined according to a certain priority order, or may be determined based on the number of keywords that characterize each command mode. In step 5504, processing, drawing, and printing are performed according to the data in the ring buffer 201 according to the command mode selected in step 5503, and the printed data is deleted from the ring buffer 201.

In this way, if the amount of data in the ring buffer 201 does not change for a certain period of time in step 5505, step 5505
Return to step 502 and perform command mode selection processing again.
If not, the process returns to step 5504 and continues processing in the currently selected command mode.

In the above embodiment as well, it becomes possible to select a command mode to be applied to input print data from among a plurality of command modes, and print the input print data using the selected command mode.

Note that various modifications can be made to the present invention without changing the gist thereof. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain correct printing results without having to match each control code system output by the connected electronic device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a storage state of received data in an embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for receiving and storing print data, and FIG. 4 5 is a flowchart for explaining the print processing procedure in this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the print processing procedure in another embodiment. In the figure, 1...CPU, 2...ROM, 3...RA
M, 4...Print mechanism interface, 5...Print mechanism section, 6...Print data input section, 8...Operation section, 2
01...Ring buffer, 202 and 203...Pointers. Patent applicant Cann Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printing device capable of performing print processing on print data of different code systems, comprising: a storage means for storing received print data; and a storage means for storing received print data, and information on which code system the stored print data belongs to. 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a discrimination means for discriminating whether a print data is stored in a pre-storage means, and an image forming means for forming a visible image based on print data stored in a pre-storage means in accordance with a code system discriminated by the discrimination means.