JP2009026205A - Software application - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem with deleting a drawn object wherein it takes extra drawing time when an object difficult to draw is used next time, because deletion is performed based on file size and time stamps regardless of the level of difficulty in recreating (drawing) the drawn object. <P>SOLUTION: Drawn objects and their respective levels of difficulty (costs) are stored in association. If the need to delete the objects arises, they are deleted in increasing order of level of difficulty (cost), whereby it is possible to keep the objects with high levels of difficulty recreating from being deleted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention provides a page having at least an arrangement designating unit for designating arrangement of a drawing result image on a page and a holding designation unit for instructing to hold the arranged drawing result, such as PPML. The present invention relates to software or a printing system for efficiently performing printing using a description means.

  With the advancement of electrophotographic technology, it is possible to print with image quality approaching that of conventional printing without the plate making required by conventional printing technologies such as offset printing. At the same time, applications and ideas that could not have been considered under conventional printing technology are born. A typical example is personalized direct mail (hereinafter referred to as PDM), which is tailored to each customer's preference information and finely controls the content, and personal information such as the customer's name is printed on the printed matter. It is. Fig. 1 shows an example of PDM.

  Figure 1 shows a travel agency PDM consisting of five parts. CUSTOMER is the customer name, COMPANY is the name of the travel agency, TITLE is the title of the DM, and TOUR1 and TOUR2 are the promotional parts of the tour.

  The travel agency decides a tour that suits each customer's preference, that is, a combination of tour promotions that are more likely to be applied using a customer database, etc., and prints a PDM that optimizes the tour combination for each customer I can do it.

  However, considering the process of printing PDM as shown in Fig. 1 using electrophotographic technology, it is not necessary to make a plate for each customer, but it is necessary to prepare print documents tailored for each customer for all customers. Yes, the cost of creating a document using a word processor or the like was still high.

  In other words, if there is an expression method that can easily express these combinations, the product information to be reused is shared, and from the printed document, it is described so that it can be placed on the paper by referring to it. Document creation work can be performed efficiently.

  Furthermore, in the case of PDM, a printed document is often expressed by a combination of an object that can be reused, such as product information, and an object that changes each time, such as a customer name. There was no specification method for storing and reusing information, and after all, the rendering engine repeated rendering of the same product information for each PDM of each customer.

  Here, if it can be specified to reuse the drawing result of an object such as product information that is used many times, the drawing engine draws only customer-specific information for each customer when printing a PDM for a customer. Commodity information other than the above can be combined with already-drawn product information that has already been stored to construct a PDM page, thereby reducing the processing required for the rendering engine.

  That is, in the PDM printing process of Fig. 1, COMPANY, TITLE, TOUR1, and TOUR2 are drawn and stored in advance, and the drawing is done by combining the CUSTOMER parts that are drawn for each customer to compose the PDM paper surface. Processing time can be reduced.

  One technology that satisfies the above requirements is PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language).

  PPML is a kind of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and is an open standard whose specifications are determined and published by an organization called PODi.

  PPML defines an area for placing an object on a page, and draws an object given in Postscript (registered trademark) (PS), Portable Document Format (PDF), JPEG, etc. in the area. Thus, it is very easy to describe an instruction to place it at a predetermined position on the page.

  In other words, PS, PDF, and JPEG draw an object that is placed on the paper surface, but PPML controls the placement of the object to finish it into a PDM or the like. In other words, PSML, PDF, JPEG, and other objects are drawn by the drawing engine, and PPML controls the placement engine that places them on the paper.

  Among them, PPML defines a name for an object to be reused, and for an object for which a name has been defined, a specification (Reusable Object, reusable object) for referring to the object by that name is provided. This specification is introduced in order to prevent the drawing engine from redrawing the same object over and over again by drawing the object to be used in advance.

  PPML also has a specification (Global Reusable Object) that defines an object defined and named in one print job so that it can be referenced from another print job.

  FIG. 2 shows a PPML source for generating the PDM shown in FIG. Here, since this source code is for helping understanding of the explanation, an essential attribute is intentionally omitted. That is, note that the PPML specification is not completely satisfied.

  The PPML source code in Fig. 2 describes PDM for three customers.

  In FIG. 2, (1) defines an image to be arranged in the TITLE portion in FIG. 1, and the reusable object described in Postscript called title.ps (PS in FIG. 2, Postscript is a registered trademark) is added to the TITLE. Named.

  (2) in FIG. 2 defines an image to be arranged in the COMPANY portion in FIG. 1, and the reuse object described in the Postscript company.ps (PS in FIG. 2, Postscript is a registered trademark) Named. In addition to the attributes similar to those in FIG. 2 (1), the reuse object COMPANY is used as a global reuse object by using attributes such as Scope and Environment, but the description is omitted because it is not related to this patent.

  (3) in FIG. 2 defines reusable objects placed in TOUR1 and TOUR2 in FIG. 1, and names SOCCOR, BASEBALL, and RUGBY for soccer, baseball, and rugby, respectively.

  In FIG. 2, (4) actually constitutes a PDM for suzuki.

  First, the page size is defined by the Dimension of the PAGE element. In the case of this example, the paper size is 792 points wide and 612 points long. The coordinates on the page are the reference point at the lower left, the unit is point, the horizontal direction is positive to the right, and the vertical direction is positive to the top.

  Next, the customer name CUSTOMER is placed on the page.

  Specifically, an object representing a customer name is specified using a MARK element so that the lower left is (50, 500).

  The object is specified by the OBJECT element. The object to be actually drawn is specified by the SOURCE element.

  The SOURCE element specifies the format of the data describing the object. In this example, it can be seen that the object is described in Postscript (PS in FIG. 2, Postscript is a registered trademark). Data itself described in Postscript (PS in FIG. 2, Postscript is a registered trademark) is designated by an EXTERNAL_DATA element described later.

  A file called suzuki.ps is specified as the actual object in the SRC of the EXTERNAL_DATA element.

  With the PPML element configuration as described above, suzuki.ps corresponding to CUSTOMER is processed by Postscript (Postscript is a registered trademark) Interpreter called from PPML Interpreter, expanded into pixel information, and the position specified by the MARK element (50, 500 ) Is positioned at the lower left.

  Note that the rendering result corresponding to suzuki.ps described here is generally different for each customer and cannot be reused. Such an object may be referred to as a variable object in association with a reuse object.

  In the next MARK element, the company name COMPANY defined as a global reuse object is placed on the page. Specifically, the lower left portion of the COMPANY portion is arranged on the page (300, 500).

  Similarly, a DM title TITLE defined as a reusable object is placed on the page (50, 50) so that the lower left part is located, and two tours (SOCCOR and BASEBALL in this case) (300, 275) (300, 50).

  In the PPML source code shown in Fig. 2, PDM related to yamada and tanaka is configured by following procedures very similar to PDM for suzuki.

  Note that the objects other than the customer name CUSTOMER use the COMPANY, TITLE, SOCCOR, BASEBALL, and RUGBY defined in Figs. 2 (1) to (3).

  In Fig. 2, PPML data for generating PDM for three customers, suzuki, yamada, and tanaka, is shown, but in actual PDM, PDM for tens of thousands of customers is printed. Is normal.

  Therefore, for objects that are used by multiple customers, such as COMPANY, TITLE, SOCCOR, BASEBALL, and RUGBY, save the rendered results once and retain them without redrawing them when they are used again. It is desirable to have a so-called cache function, such as using the drawn result, and to hold the drawn result in a storage area for reuse.

  In other words, in the PPML source code, the global reusable object and reusable object description method as shown in FIGS. 2 (1) to (3) should be cached so that the rendering result of the object can be reused later. It is a set specification.

  Further, the company logo COMPANY is defined as a global reuse object because it may be used in another print job. In the case of PPML, by defining Scope as Global and giving Environment separately, it is possible to make a global reusable object that can use the company logo in another print job that specifies the Environment. In FIG. 2, the character string “A” is specified as the value of Environment.

  On the other hand, in the cache system in the conventional printing system, the font drawing that determines whether or not the drawn (bit-mapped) face data is temporarily saved according to the number of strokes constituting the character. There is an apparatus (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

The patent requires the number of strokes and the drawing of the font, such as creating an outline composed of strokes, such as font drawing, and then painting the area surrounded by the outline with a pattern. This is an effective technique when it is easy to predict various resources and costs.
JP 02-064599 (page 4, Fig. 2)

  However, since the rendering process is declared as Reusable for an object that is very light, there is a case where an object with a very high cost for redrawing is deleted, which is rather slow.

  As described above, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-064599 is effective when it is easy to predict resources and costs necessary for drawing, but Postscript generally includes a font drawing function. (Postscript is a registered trademark) In the interpreter, the resources consumed by the processing system become very large, and a relatively simple estimation calculation based on the number of strokes does not necessarily have sufficient costs for actual resource consumption etc. I cannot make a correct estimate.

  Furthermore, there has been no means for effectively utilizing the estimated cost in the cache management such as deleting the already drawn cached font from the cache.

  Therefore, the object of the present invention is to store the drawn object and the difficulty (cost) in correspondence with each other, and when it is necessary to delete the object, the object is deleted from the one with the lower difficulty (cost). It is in suppressing that the object with the high difficulty to reproduce is deleted.

To achieve the above objective,
A first description unit for describing an object to be drawn; a first storage unit capable of holding the first description unit; and a first unit for generating the object by drawing the first description unit A drawing means, a measuring means for measuring or estimating a resource amount necessary for generating the drawn object from the first description means by the first drawing means, and an object drawn by the first drawing means When drawing the second storage means and the first description means that can be held together with the resource amount information necessary for drawing measured or estimated by the measuring means, the first storage means If a drawn object, which is the drawing result of the first description means, exists, the object is used as the drawing result. If not, the first drawing hand is used. A software application having a drawing management means for creating an object by drawing using the second storage means when the second storage means does not have enough room to store the object It is possible to store the object in the second storage unit by deleting the objects stored in the unit in order from the smallest resource amount required for drawing. It is to provide a software application or a printing system.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to optimize the drawing of an object included in a print document described in PPML or the like, and efficient printing can be performed.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 3 shows a system configuration used in the description of this embodiment.

  The PC is a host machine that issues a print job described in PPML, which is the first description means in this embodiment, to a so-called PC compatible machine or printer PRN described later, and at least the PPML source code to be printed A storage area PCST for holding a plurality of drawing object sources SOBJ referenced by PPMLJ and PPMLJ is connected.

  In the case of the PPML source code shown in FIG. 2, PPMLJ corresponds to company.ps, title.ps, soccor.ps, baseball.ps, rugby.ps as the source code itself of FIG.

  PRN is a printing device that receives PPMLJ and SOBJ from the PC and performs actual printing. The receiving procedure and network protocol are not described in detail in this embodiment.

  The PRN itself may be a combination of a server PC that performs a printing service and a printing apparatus, but in this embodiment, the PRN is described as a single casing.

  At least a storage area PRNST, which will be described later, and a clock CLOCK that can read the PRN are connected to or built in the PRN.

  PRNST is a storage area that stores various information necessary for printing the print job PPMLJ sent from the PC. At least the INST that stores the interpretation result of the PPMLJ sent from the PC and the management of reusable objects Database DB to perform, source storage area SSPACE for holding and managing image sources, reusable object storage area RSPACE to store and manage image objects ROBJ that are the result of interpreting and drawing image sources, RMAX indicating the size of RSPACE, RCUR indicating RSPACE free space size, RSIZ indicating ROBJ size, cost COST required to draw ROBJ, page area PAGE that holds pixel data of the printed page, and parts that constitute PAGE Includes an area START for storing the time read from the buffer areas WORK and CLOCK. INST and DB will be described later.

  FIG. 4 is a configuration example of INST existing on the above-described PRNST, and can manage at least three attribute values of OP, NAME, and FILE.

  OP indicates the content of processing. In this embodiment, at least “DEF” indicating the definition of the reuse object and “REF” indicating the reference of the reuse object can be stored as OP.

  NAME is the name of the reuse object specified by the Label attribute of the OCCURRENCE element when defining a reuse object that is an object that can be reused many times in PPML.

  FILE stores the file name of the original data of the reuse object specified by NAME only when OP is DEF.

  FIG. 5 is a configuration example of the database DB existing on the PRNST.

  In this embodiment, the DB is a database that can manage a reuse object by combining at least five pieces of information of NAME, SRC, PROCESSED, FLAG, and COST.

  NAME is the name of the reuse object and stores the value of NAME described in INST.

  SRC is a drawing object source corresponding to NAME, and stores information for identifying the SOBJ specified by FILE in INST. Depending on the location of SOBJ on PRNST, file information different from FILE in INST may be stored, but this is not described in detail here.

  PROCESSED is information indicating ROBJ or SOBJ, and information indicating ROBJ or information indicating SOBJ is determined by the value of FLAG.

  FLAG takes one of the values “DONE” or “YET”. “DONE” indicates that the data indicated by PROCESSED is ROBJ, and “YET” indicates that it is SOBJ.

  In other words, a FLAG value of “DONE” for a reusable object indicates that it can be placed without drawing processing to place it on a PAGE, while “YET” means that the reusable object This means that every time an object is placed on a page, a drawing process is performed.

  6 to 7 are processing flows for explaining the present embodiment in the system configurations of FIGS.

  S-1 in FIG. 6 is an initialization step of the first description means processing device. In this step, input / output and the like are initialized. Detailed explanation is omitted.

  In S-2, the PRN interprets the PPMLJ sent from the PC, extracts the processing classification and information necessary for the processing, and stores them in the INST. At the same time, all SOBJs referenced by PPMLJ are received from the PC.

  In S-3, it is checked whether an unprocessed processing unit remains on INST. If the processing unit remains in INST, the process ends in S-4, and if not, the process ends.

  In S-4, the processing units interpreted in S-2 are sequentially extracted, and the process proceeds to S-5.

  In S-5, it is checked whether the OP included in the processing unit extracted in S-4 is “DEF”. If “DEF”, transition to S-13, otherwise transition to S-6.

  In S-6, it is checked whether the OP included in the processing unit extracted in S-4 is “REF”. If “REF”, transition to S-8, otherwise transition to S-7.

  In S-7, when the processing unit OP fetched in S-4 is neither “DEF” nor “REF”, “other” processing is performed, and then the process returns to S-3.

  Other processing includes variable data drawing / placement processing that changes each time, such as the second to fourth lines in (4) in Fig. 2, and the pages stored in PAGE In the present embodiment, it will not be described in detail.

  In S-8 to S-12, processing is performed when the OP of the INST focused in S-4 is “REF”.

  First, in S-8, the DB is searched using the NAME of the focused INST.

  Next, in S-9, the FLAG value of the record of the search result is checked. If FLAG is “DONE”, go to S-10, otherwise go to S-11.

  In S-10, the file indicated by PRCESSED in the DB search result is recognized as ROBJ and read into WORK, and the process proceeds to S-12.

  On the other hand, in S-11, the file indicated by PPROCESSED in the DB search result is recognized as SOBJ, and drawing processing is performed.

  After the drawing result is once created on WORK, the process proceeds to S-12.

  In S-12, after placing ROBJ stored in WORK on PAGE, the process returns to S3.

  On the other hand, if the OP of the INST is “DEF” in S-5, the reuse object classification process is performed in S-13, and then the process returns to S-3 to perform the next processing unit. Details of the reuse object classification process will be described later.

  Furthermore, if there are no processing items to be processed on INST in S-3, the processing ends.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the details of the reuse object registration process indicated by S-13 in FIG.

  In S-14, after saving SOBJ in SSPACE, transition to S-15.

  In S-15, a record for SOBJ is created in the DB and the process proceeds to S-16. When creating a record, set SOBJ for both SRC and PROCESSED, and set "YET" for FLAG.

  In S-16, after reading the value of CLOCK and storing it in START, the process proceeds to S-17.

  In S-17, the SOBJ specified by SRC is drawn on WORK to obtain ROBJ, and then the process proceeds to S-18.

  At this time, the size of ROBJ stored in WORK is stored in RSIZ. Details of the drawing process are omitted here.

  In S-18, the time spent in ROBJ drawing in S-17 is calculated from the value of CLOCK and the time information stored in START, and after storing in COST, the process proceeds to S-19.

  In S-19, check whether it is possible to store the ROBJ drawn on WORK in RSPACE in the first place. Specifically, the process proceeds to S-20 only when ROBJ is smaller than RSPACE, and in other cases, the reuse object registration process is terminated.

  In S-20, this time, it is checked whether there is enough room to store ROBJ on RSPACE. If there is a room, the process goes to S-26, and if there is no room, the process goes to S-21.

  S-21 to S-25 are processes when there is not enough room to store ROBJ on RSPACE.

  In S-21, first, the one having DB.FLAG of “DONE” and the smallest value of DB.COST is taken out, and the process proceeds to S-22. The retrieved record is hereinafter MIN.

  In S-22, compare the COST calculated in S-18 with the COST contained in the record of MIN searched in S-21. If MIN.COST is smaller, go to S-23, otherwise Then, the reuse object registration process is terminated.

  In S-23, RCUR, which is the current usage of RSPACE, is reduced by the size of the file indicated by MIN.PROCESSED, and the process proceeds to S-24.

  In S-24, the file indicated by MIN.PROCESSED is deleted from RSPACE, and the process proceeds to S-25.

  In S-25, the value of MIN.SRC is stored in MIN.PROCESSED, “YET” is stored in MIN.FLAG, and the process returns to S-20.

  S-26 to S-28 are processes when there is room for storing ROBJ on RSPACE.

  In S-26, ROBJ is stored in RSPACE, and transition is made to S-27.

  In S-27, the ROBJ stored in RSPACE is registered in DB.PROCESSED, “DONE” is registered in DB.FLAG, and the value of COST is registered in DB.COST, and the process proceeds to S-28.

  In S-28, the size RSIZ of ROBJ is added to RCUR, which is the current usage amount of RSPACE, and the reuse object registration process ends.

  Hereinafter, this will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 8 is a configuration example of PRNST and CLOCK for explaining the present embodiment in detail.

  For INST and DB, only attributes necessary for the description of this embodiment are shown. RSPACE, SSPACE, WORK, PAGE, RSIZ, RCUR, RMAX, COST, and START correspond to the same names in FIG. Note that CLOCK represents the time elapsed since PRN activation.

  OBJs is an area in which SOBJ referenced by PPMLJ is stored.

  The PRNST may be a semiconductor memory such as a RAM or an external storage device such as an HDD. Further, for example, a hybrid configuration in which only OBJs are HDD and others are RAM may be adopted.

  When the initialization of S-1 is completed to process the PPMLJ shown in FIG. 9, the state shown in FIG. 10 is obtained.

  INST, DB, START, WORK, PAGE, SSPACE, RSPACE, and OBJs are all initialized as empty. RMAX is 12000. In this embodiment, it can be seen that the size of RSPACE is 12000 units. Currently, RSPACE is empty, so RCUR is 0 units.

  From the state of FIG. 10, PPMLJ shown in FIG. 9 is interpreted in S-2, and the interpretation result is stored in INST. At the same time, the four PS files referenced by the PPML source code are read into the OBJs, resulting in the state shown in FIG. A triangle placed on the right side of INST indicates a processing unit to be taken out (attention) next in S-4.

  From the state of FIG. 11, since the above triangle points on INST in S-3, the processing unit pointed to by the above triangle is determined in S-4.

  Next, FIG. 12 shows a state in which the OP is checked in S-5 and the state transits to S-13 because it is “DEF”.

  From the state of Fig. 12, in S-14, S-15, S-16 of Fig. 7, create a record for EASY_HUGE which is the processing unit focused on DB, set the value of CLOCK to START, The state shown in FIG. 13 is obtained. SOBJ is easy_huge.ps.

  From the state shown in FIG. 13, easy_huge.ps is drawn in S-17, and the resulting ROBJ is stored in WORK and the size of the drawing result is stored in RSIZ.

  Subsequently, in S-18, COST is calculated from CLOCK and START, and the state shown in FIG. 14 is obtained.

  From the state of FIG. 14, RSIZ and RMAX are compared in S-19. In this case, since RSIZ = 15000> 12000 = RMAX, the reusable object registration process is terminated and the flow returns to the flow of FIG.

  Next, returning to S-3, it is checked whether or not the processing unit to be processed remains in the INST, and since it remains, the state that has proceeded to S-4 is shown in FIG. The processing unit has moved to the second line on INST (“DEF” of “EASY_SMALL”).

  From the state of FIG. 15, OP is checked in S-5, and since it is “DEF”, the process proceeds to S-13.

  Next, through S-14, S-15, and S-16 in FIG. 7, a record for EASY_SMALL is created on the DB, and the value of CLOCK is set to START.

  After that, drawing of easy_small.ps is performed in S-17, ROBJ is drawn on WORK, and the size of the drawing result is stored in RSIZ.

  In S-18, COST is calculated and the state shown in FIG. 16 is obtained.

  From the state of FIG. 16, RSIZ and RMAX are compared in S-19. This time, since RMAX = 12000> 1000 = RSIZ, the process proceeds to S-20.

  In S-20, it is checked whether the ROBJ of easy_small.ps stored in RWORK can be stored in RSPACE. In this case, since RMAX = 12000> 0 + 1000 = RCUR + RSIZ, ROBJ can be stored in RSPACE. So, transition to S-26.

  In S-26, ROBJ of easy_small.ps stored in WORK is stored in RSPACE.

  Next, in S-27, ROBJ is set in PROCESSED of the corresponding record in DB, “DONE” is set in DB.FLAG, and COST is set in DB.COST.

  In S-28, the current usage amount RCUR of RSPACE is updated, and the reuse object registration process is terminated.

  After that, the process returns to S-3, and since there is a remainder in INST, the state where the process proceeds to S-4 is shown in FIG.

  From the state of FIG. 17, OP is checked in S-5, and since it is “DEF”, the process transits to S-13 again.

  Similarly to EASY_SMALL, after passing through S-14, S-15, and S-16 in FIG. 7, drawing of easy_big.ps is performed in S-17, ROBJ is stored in WORK, and COST is set in S-18. The calculated state is as shown in FIG.

  From the state of FIG. 18, RSIZ and RMAX are compared in S-19, and since RMAX = 12000> 7000 = RSIZ again this time, the process proceeds to S-20.

  In S-20, it is checked whether ROBJ of easy_big.ps can be stored in RSPACE. Also in this case, since RMAX = 12000> 8000 = 1000 + 7000 = RCUR + RSIZ, ROBJ can be stored in RSPACE. , Transition to S-26.

  In S-26, ROBJ of easy_big.ps stored in WORK is stored in RSPACE.

  Next, in S-27, ROBJ is set in PROCESSED of the corresponding record in DB, “DONE” is set in DB.FLAG, and the value of COST is set in DB.COST.

  In S-28, the current usage amount RCUR of RSPACE is updated, and the reuse object registration process is terminated.

  Thereafter, the process returns to S-3, and since there is a remainder in INST, the process proceeds to S-4. Since the processing unit to be processed remains in INST, the process proceeds to S-4 in FIG.

  From the state of FIG. 19, OP is checked in S-5, and since it is “DEF”, the process proceeds to S-13.

  Similarly, after passing through S-14, S-15, and S-16 in FIG. 7, drawing of difficult_big.ps is performed in S-17, ROBJ is stored in WORK, and COST is calculated in S-18. As shown in FIG.

  From the state of FIG. 20, RSIZ and RMAX are compared in S-19, and since RMAX = 12000> 11500 = RSIZ this time as well, transition is made to S-20.

  In S-20, it is checked whether ROBJ of difficult_big.ps stored in WORK can be stored in RSPACE. In this case, since RMAX = 12000 <8000 + 11500 = RCUR + RSIZ, ROBJ remains as it is. Then it cannot be stored in RSPACE. Therefore, the process proceeds to S-21.

  In S-21, the record having the smallest COST value among the records in the DB with FLAG == “DONE” is searched, and the state shown in FIG. 21 is obtained. The triangle pointing to the DB record indicates that the MIN record has been searched.

  From the state of FIG. 21, the values of MIN.COST and COST are compared in S-22, and since MIN.COST = 1000 <9000 = COST, transition is made to S-23.

  In S-23, first, RCUR is adjusted by the size of the file pointed to by MIN.PROCESSED to be deleted in the next step S-24. A means for obtaining the size of the file from the file name is not specifically described here.

  Subsequently, in S-24, the file indicated by MIN.PROCESSED is deleted from RSPACE.

  Next, in S-25, MIN.SRC is stored so that the file pointed to by MIN.PROCESSED is SOBJ, and the value of MIN.FLAG is “YET”, resulting in the state of FIG.

  From the state of Fig. 22, return to S-20 and check if there is enough room in PSPACE to store ROBJ of difficult_big.ps stored in WORK again in RSPACE, but this time RMAX = 12000 < Since 7000 + 11500 = RCUR + RSIZ, the process proceeds to S-21.

  In S-21, the DB is searched again, and the state shown in FIG. 23 is obtained.

  From the state of FIG. 23, MIN.COST and COST are compared by S-22. Since MIN.COST = 3000 <9000 = COST this time as well, transition is made to S-23.

  In S-23, the size 7000 of the file easy_big.bmp pointed to by MIN.PROCESSED is subtracted from RCUR.

  Next, in S-24, delete easy_big.bmp on RSPACE.

  In S-25, the PROCESSED and FLAG of the record MIN on the DB are updated, and the state shown in FIG. 24 is obtained.

  Returning to S-20 from the state of FIG. 24, it is checked whether there is enough room in PSPACE to save the ROBJ of difficult_big.ps stored in WORK again in RSPACE.

  This time, RMAX = 12000> 0 + 1150 = RCUR + RSIZ, so that it can be stored and the process proceeds to S-26.

  In S-26, ROBJ of difficult_big.ps stored in WORK is stored in RSPACE.

  Next, in S-27, the ROBJ path “difficult_big.bmp” is set in the PROCESSED of the corresponding record in the DB, “DONE” is set in the DB.FLAG, and the COST value of 9000 units is set in the DB.COST. In S-28, the current RCUR of RSPACE is updated and the reuse object registration process is terminated.

  After that, the process returns to S-3, and since there is a remainder in INST, the state of advance to S-4 is shown in FIG.

  From the state of FIG. 25, OP is checked in S-5, and since it is not “DEF”, the process proceeds to S-6.

  Next, in S-6, OP is checked again, and since it is “REF”, the process proceeds to S-8.

  FIG. 26 shows a state in which the DB is searched using “EASY_HUGE” which is the value of the INST.NAME of interest in S-8, and then transitioned to S-9. The triangle placed on the right side of the DB indicates the line on the DB that matched as a result of searching in S-8.

  From the state of FIG. 26, since the value of FLAG is “YET” in S-9, the process proceeds to S-11.

  Next, in S-11, the DB.PROCESSED file is recognized as SOBJ, drawing processing is performed on WORK, and the process proceeds to S-12.

  Then, ROBJ of EASY_HUGE stored in WORK in S-12 is arranged on PAGE, and the state shown in FIG. 27 is obtained.

  From the state of FIG. 27, the process returns to S-3, and since the processing unit remains in INST, the process proceeds to S-4.

  In S-4, the next processing unit is taken out and the state shown in FIG. 28 is obtained.

  From the state shown in FIG. 28, since OP is “REF”, the state transitions to S-5, S-6, and S-8 as before, DB is searched with “EASY_SMALL”, and the FLAG value of the record is “YET”. Therefore, easy_small.ps is drawn in S-11, the result is stored in WORK, and placed in PAGE in S-12.

  Then, returning to S-3, since there is a remainder in INST, the state proceeding to S-4 is shown in FIG.

  Similarly, FIG. 30 shows a state in which the process related to EASY_BIG is returned to S-4 after the state shown in FIG. 29 is performed.

  From the state of FIG. 30, a processing unit is extracted in S-4.

  Since the next processing unit is also “REF”, the process transits to S-8 via S-5 and S-6.

  In S-8, when a record corresponding to the processing unit NAME “DIFFICULT_BIG” is searched in the DB, the state shown in FIG. 31 is obtained.

  From the state shown in FIG. 31, when FLAG is checked in S-9, since it is “DONE” this time, it transits to S-10.

  In S-10, ROBJ “difficult_big.bmp” stored in RSPACE is read and stored in WORK, and the process proceeds to S-12.

  In S-12, ROBJ of DIFFICULT_BIG stored in WORK is arranged in PAGE, resulting in the state shown in FIG.

  Returning to S-3 from the state shown in FIG. 32, no processing unit remains in INST, and the processing is terminated.

Example of direct mail for individuals Example of simplified PPML source code for configuring the direct mail shown in Figure 1 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Details of table INST constituting part of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Details of a table DB constituting a part of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention 1 is a flowchart describing details of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a flowchart describing details of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Simplified PPML source code used to describe a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention Internal structure of printing system used for description of printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention

Claims (6)

A first description unit for describing an object to be drawn; a first storage unit capable of holding the first description unit; and a first unit for generating the object by drawing the first description unit A drawing means, a measuring means for measuring or estimating a resource amount necessary for generating the drawn object from the first description means by the first drawing means, and an object drawn by the first drawing means When drawing the second storage means and the first description means that can be held together with the resource amount information necessary for drawing measured or estimated by the measuring means, the first storage means If there is a drawn object that is the drawing result of the first description means, the object is used as a drawing result. If not, the first drawing is used. A software application having a drawing management means for creating an object by drawing using a stage, wherein the second storage means does not have a sufficient margin for storing the object; It is possible to store the object in the second storage means by deleting the objects stored in the storage means in descending order of the amount of resources necessary for drawing. A software application.   Only when the drawing management means draws the first description means with the first drawing means to generate an object, and the result of the measuring means satisfies a predetermined condition, the second drawing means The software application according to claim 1, wherein the object is stored in a storage unit.   3. The software according to claim 1, wherein when the object satisfies a certain condition, the first description unit is registered in a second storage unit instead of the object. application. A first description unit for describing an object to be drawn; a first storage unit capable of holding the first description unit; and a first unit for generating the object by drawing the first description unit A drawing means, a measuring means for measuring or estimating a resource amount necessary for generating the drawn object from the first description means by the first drawing means, and an object drawn by the first drawing means When drawing the second storage means and the first description means that can be held together with the resource amount information necessary for drawing measured or estimated by the measuring means, the first storage means If a drawn object, which is the drawing result of the first description means, exists, the object is used as the drawing result. If not, the first drawing hand is used. A software application having a drawing management means for creating an object by drawing using the second storage means when the second storage means does not have enough room to store the object It is possible to store the object in the second storage unit by deleting the objects stored in the unit in order from the smallest resource amount required for drawing. , Printing system.   Only when the drawing management means draws the first description means with the first drawing means to generate an object, and the result of the measuring means satisfies a predetermined condition, the second drawing means The printing system according to claim 4, wherein the object is stored in a storage unit.   6. The printing according to claim 4, wherein when the object satisfies a certain condition, the first description unit is registered in a second storage unit instead of the object. system.

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