JP2005135119A - Status monitoring method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To vary intervals of status monitoring according to the state of a receiving buffer of a printer. <P>SOLUTION: When a status monitor part 62 of a language monitor 6 sends a status request to a port monitor 7 through a transmission/reception part 64 for data, a transmission/reception part 71 for various I/Fs of the port monitor 7 sends the status request to the printer 10. The CPU of the printer 10 which has received this status request sends a status including data showing the state of the receiving buffer back to the port monitor 7. The port monitor 7 sends the status to the language monitor 6. The status monitor part 62 of the language monitor 6 once deciding from the received status that the receiving buffer of the printer 10 is nearly full performs status monitoring at specified time intervals (longer than usual) for the buffer near full state. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a status monitoring method, and more particularly to a status monitoring method capable of monitoring status by bidirectional communication.

Conventionally, a printer has a function of performing two-way communication with a personal computer connected to the printer and transmitting the printer status in response to a request from the personal computer. The printer status can be monitored from the personal computer. It has become. The printer returns this status when a status request different from the print data is transmitted from the printer driver of the personal computer. In addition, the printer performs print processing and reception processing for receiving print data, commands, and the like using a single CPU (central processing unit).
In addition, the printer has a reception buffer, and print data transmitted from the personal computer can be stored in the reception buffer. The stored print data is received from the reception buffer in order from the print processing. It is to be deleted. For this reason, when the reception buffer becomes full of print data (buffer near full state), no more print data can be stored in the reception buffer, so the print data that has been printed is deleted. The newly received print data is not accepted until the received print data can be accumulated.
In addition, the upper device transfers print data of the receivable size notified from the printer, and does not transfer the next print data until the receivable size is notified again from the printer. The receivable size can be changed by designation from the user, and the receivable size is changed to an optimum receivable size according to the transfer performance of the host device.
JP 2000-207142 A

  However, the conventional technique has a problem that even though the reception buffer can be prevented from being full, the printing process cannot be efficiently performed according to the state of the reception buffer.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and in the reception buffer near-full state, by increasing the status monitoring interval, the time that the CPU can take for the printing process is increased, and the throughput during the printing process is increased. It is to be able to improve.

The status monitoring method according to claim 1 is a status monitoring method for monitoring a printer status, a status request step for transmitting a status request to the printer at a predetermined time interval, and a status request from the printer. A status receiving step for receiving the returned status; and an adjusting step for adjusting a time interval for transmitting the status request to the printer in accordance with the status of the reception buffer of the printer included in the status. To do.
In the adjustment step, when the printer reception buffer is in the buffer near full state, the time interval is set longer than when the printer reception buffer is not in the buffer near full state. May send a status request to the printer at the time interval adjusted in the adjusting step.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to increase the time required for the CPU to perform the printing process in the reception buffer near full state, thereby improving the throughput of the printer.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a software configuration example of a personal computer (PC) to which the present invention is applied. In this embodiment, the user interface driver 1, the application 2, the GDI 32 (3) (where the number 3 in parentheses is a sign), the graphics driver 4, the spooler 5, the language monitor 6, The port monitor 7 is composed of a graphic engine 8 and a device driver 9. The port monitor 7 makes a status request with the printer 10 via the device driver 9, and receives the status returned from the printer 10. Yes.

  The user interface driver 1 is a 32-bit / unicode version, and is a part that provides a user interface for setting the printer 10. The application 2 is text editing software or the like. GDI32 (3) is a graphic device interface (32-bit version), and is a library for realizing a drawing tool. For example, it corresponds to a pen for drawing a line or a brush for painting a color.

  The graphics driver 4 is a 32-bit / unicode version, and is a part that converts a print request from the application 2 into a printer command and transmits it to a spooler 5 described later. The spooler 5 receives the printer command transmitted from the graphics driver 4 and temporarily stores it. Then, the spooler 5 sequentially supplies the received printer command to a language monitor 6 and a port monitor 7 described later.

  The language monitor 6 is a 32-bit / UNICODE version, and is a module that performs flow control when performing bidirectional communication. The port monitor 7 is a part that implements a device interface function with the printer 10. The device driver 9 is an abstraction of a physical device as a file on the OS (Operating System).

  The user mode is a mode in which execution of CPU instructions is restricted for the purpose of protecting the system on the OS. The kernel mode is a mode in which the CPU can execute a privileged instruction on the OS.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a method for monitoring status. As shown in the figure, the language monitor 6 transmits print data and a status request to the port monitor 7 and receives the status transmitted from the port monitor 7. The port monitor 7 transmits the print data and status request transmitted from the language monitor 6 to the printer 10 via the device driver 9 and transmits the status transmitted from the printer 10 to the language monitor 6. ing.

  The language monitor 6 includes a command analysis unit 61, a status monitoring unit 62, a spooler flow control unit 63, and a data transmission / reception unit 64. The port monitor 7 has a transmission / reception unit 71 for various I / Fs (interfaces).

  The command analysis unit 61 of the language monitor 6 analyzes the printer command transmitted from the spooler 5 and supplies it to the port monitor 7 as print data. The status monitoring unit 62 transmits a status request to the port monitor 7 at a predetermined time interval. The flow control unit 63 of the spooler is configured to suppress the amount of data flowing to the printer 10 according to the state of the reception buffer of the printer 10. The data transmitting / receiving unit 64 transmits print data and a status request to the port monitor 7 and receives a status transmitted from the port monitor 7.

  The port monitor 7 includes a transmission / reception unit 71 for various I / Fs. The print data and the status request transmitted from the language monitor 6 are transmitted to the printer 10 via the device driver 9 and transmitted from the printer 10. The status is received.

  The printer 10 receives print data and a status request transmitted from the port monitor 7 via the device driver 9, and returns a status to the port monitor 7 via the device driver. (Not shown) for storing the reception buffer, and a CPU (not shown) for performing various processing such as processing for detecting the state of the reception buffer, returning the status to the port monitor 7 via the transmission / reception unit, and printing print data (Central processing unit) is received, print data and a status request transmitted from the port monitor 7 via the device driver 9 are received, the print data is temporarily stored in the reception buffer, and in response to the status request, The status is returned.

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S1, the status monitoring unit 62 of the language monitor 6 determines whether status monitoring is required, that is, whether status monitoring needs to be performed. Whether or not status monitoring is necessary is set in advance by the user, and whether or not status monitoring is necessary is determined based on this setting.

  As a result, when it is determined that status monitoring is not necessary, the present process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined that status monitoring is necessary, the process proceeds to step S2. In step S 2, the status monitor 62 of the language monitor 6 transmits a status request to the port monitor 7 via the data transmitter / receiver 64.

  When the status request transmitted from the language monitor 6 is received by the transmission / reception unit 71 for various I / Fs of the port monitor 7, the received status request is transmitted to the printer 10 via the device driver 9. When the CPU (not shown) of the printer 10 receives the status request transmitted from the port monitor 7 via the device driver 9 via the transmitter / receiver (not shown), the status of the printer 10 is transmitted / received to the status request. Return through.

  Next, in step S <b> 3, when the port monitor 7 receives the status returned from the printer 10 via the device driver 9, the port monitor 7 transmits the received status to the language monitor 6. This status is received by the data transmitting / receiving unit 64 of the language monitor 6 and supplied to the status monitoring unit 62.

  The status returned from the printer 10 includes data indicating the state of a reception buffer (not shown) of the printer 10. In step S 4, the status monitoring unit 62 of the language monitor 6 includes the printer 10 included in this status. Whether the reception buffer is in a buffer near full state is determined from the data indicating the state of the reception buffer.

  As a result, when the status monitoring unit 62 of the language monitor 6 determines that the reception buffer of the printer 10 is in a buffer near full state, the process proceeds to step S5, where a predetermined status monitoring interval time A when the buffer near full is set. Is set. On the other hand, when the status monitoring unit 62 of the language monitor 6 determines that the reception buffer of the printer 10 is not in a buffer near full state, the process proceeds to step S6, and a predetermined status at normal time (when the buffer near full state is not obtained). A monitoring interval time B is set. When the process of step S5 or step S6 ends, the process proceeds to step S7.

  In step S7, when the status monitoring interval time A is set in step S5 by the status monitoring unit 62, after waiting for this status monitoring interval time A (after waiting), the process returns to step S1, and after step S1. This process is repeatedly executed. On the other hand, when the status monitoring interval time B is set in step S6, after waiting for this status monitoring interval time B (after waiting), the process returns to step S1, and the processing after step S1 is repeatedly executed.

  As a result, the time interval at which the status monitoring unit 62 monitors the status of the printer 10 changes according to the state of the reception buffer of the printer 10. By setting the status monitoring interval time A (set in the buffer near full state) to be longer than the status monitoring interval time B (set in the normal state), when the reception buffer of the printer 10 is in the buffer near full state, The time interval of status monitoring can be made longer than when it is not (normal time). Accordingly, when the reception buffer is in the buffer near full state, the CPU (not shown) of the printer 10 spends less time for processing to return the status than usual, and the amount of time can be used for printing processing, thereby improving throughput. be able to.

  Further, when the reception buffer of the printer 10 is in a buffer near full state, the amount of data flowing between the printer 10 and the personal computer can be reduced, so that the personal computer is connected to the personal computer via a LAN (local area network) or the like. When the printer 10 and other devices are connected and share a personal computer, the amount of traffic can be reduced.

  It should be noted that the configuration and operation of the above-described embodiment are examples, and it goes without saying that they can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows the software structural example of the personal computer (PC) to which this invention is applied. It is a block diagram for demonstrating the method to monitor a status. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of this Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 User interface driver 2 Application 3 GDI32
4 Graphics Driver 5 Spooler 6 Language Monitor 7 Port Monitor 8 Graphic Engine 9 Device Driver 10 Printer 61 Command Analysis Unit 62 Status Monitoring Unit 63 Spooler Flow Control Unit 64 Data Transmission / Reception Unit 71 Transmission / Reception Unit for Various I / Fs

Claims (2)

A status monitoring method for monitoring the status of a printer,
A status request step for transmitting a status request to the printer at predetermined time intervals;
A status receiving step of receiving the status returned from the printer in response to the status request;
A status monitoring method comprising: an adjustment step of adjusting the time interval for transmitting the status request to the printer according to the status of the reception buffer of the printer included in the status. In the adjustment step, when the state of the reception buffer of the printer is a buffer near full state, the time interval is made longer than when the state of the reception buffer of the printer is not a buffer near full state,
The status monitoring method according to claim 1, wherein in the status request step, the status request is transmitted to the printer at the time interval adjusted in the adjustment step.

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