JPH02287722A - Character output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the time required for program switching and to save a space on an external storage device by providing a means which relates program files to files having symbol information regarding the files. CONSTITUTION:A program file 4 is divided into a part 4b which depends upon input print data and a part which does not depend upon the data, i.e. a common part 4a and files 4c and 4d which have symbol information regarding this file are related. Consequently, even if the format of the input print data is different, printing processing is performed only by loading a program which depends upon the format and even a character device which has many formats can perform processing only by having the program of the common part and a program group of the part depending upon the formats, so that the time required for the program switching is shortened and the space on the external storage device can be saved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is useful because the format of manually input print data differs depending on the character output device, especially the host computer that supplies the print data. This relates to a character output device that requires multiple programs corresponding to the .

[Prior art] In conventional devices of this type, in order to analyze and print print data in a different format, it is necessary to restart the character output device by reloading another program that supports the format. had to be done.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in the above-mentioned character output device, when outputting print data in a different format, it is necessary to reload all system programs that correspond to the format of the manually input print data14. However, we were not satisfied with the result, as it took a lot of time to switch over, and all of the system programs had to be stored on an external storage device, which wasted space on the storage device. It wasn't possible.

An object of the present invention is to provide a character output device that eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes means for associating a program file with a file having symbol information about the file.

[Function] According to the present invention, the program file is divided into a part that depends on the format of the input print data and a part that does not depend on the format of the input print data, that is, a common part, and the two parts are combined. This has the effect of saving the time required for switching and the space of the external storage device.

[Examples] Examples according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of this embodiment.

In the figure, 1 is the output device main body, 2 is a CPU that controls the entire output device main body 1, and 3 is a ROM in which the program of the flowchart in FIG. 6 is stored.

A RAM 4 is used as a work area during processing operations of the CPU 2 and stores programs or symbol information read from the magnetic disk device 5 and floppy disk device 6, and includes a common program storage area 4a, an input Program storage area 4 that depends on data
b, a symbol information storage area 4c for the program 4a, and a symbol information storage area 4d for the program 4b. The symbol information portions 40 and 4d in FIGS.
It is composed of the tables shown in the figure, and Figure 2 shows the location table, which contains information about the part that refers to undefined symbols. has not been determined, so the information necessary for determination is stored in the form of the number of the symbol information table and the address of the module or the offset from the beginning of the program as the position where it should originally be stored.

FIG. 3 is an information table of all external symbols in the program file, and is composed of a serial number, a symbol name, a type, and an address in the symbol information table. The type is information on whether the address of the symbol is undefined or not, and in this embodiment, "U" is undefined and "D゛° is defined.The address is if the previous type is °°D. In the case of ゛°, it has a meaning because the address value is fixed, and is usually set when creating a program file.

The present embodiment realized with the above configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 and the example of FIG. 4.

First, in step S1, a program switching command is input from the keyboard 8. At this time, specify the program file name as a parameter. Step S2.
In S3, it is checked whether the designated file exists in the magnetic disk device 5 and the front disk device 6. If not, error processing is performed in step S3 if necessary.

If the specified file has been deleted, step S5
Load the program into 4b and the symbol information into 4d. At this time, the number of relocation tables and symbol information tables in the header of the file is also checked.

In step S6, it is checked whether an undefined symbol is referenced, that is, whether the number of relocation tables is 0. If it is 0, there is no undefined symbol, so there is no need to resolve the address, and the process ends. .

In step S7, the address of the undefined symbol is resolved.

Explaining it using the program in Figure 4, since it references undefined symbol X, looking at the relocation table,
There is a symbol information table number N1 and a program position Qi where a value should be set when the address is resolved. Qi
is expressed as an offset value from the beginning of the program. Looking at Q1 in the symbol information table, there is a symbol name Si. With this, the symbol information table in the symbol information 4C of the common program is searched, and the one that matches the name S1 is searched. At this time, if there is no match (Sa), the program will not be able to operate correctly because there is an undefined symbol, so after performing error processing, the operator is prompted to specify the command again in step S1.

If found, address A1 is set to the position indicated by offset Q1, and the process proceeds to step s9. Step S
In step S9, a check is made to see if all undefined symbols have been resolved, and if there are still undefined symbols, the process returns to step S7. With the above, all undefined references in the program 4b that depend on human data are resolved. Similarly, since there are undefined symbols that refer to common programs 4a to 4b, steps S6 to S9 are performed in the same way, and program 4a
and 4b, all addresses that refer to each other's modules are resolved.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, even if the format of manually printed data is different, the printing process can be performed by simply loading only the program that depends on the format, and it is possible to handle many formats. Character output devices also only need to have a program for common parts and a group of programs for format-dependent parts, resulting in a reduction in the time required to switch programs and space on external storage devices. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a character output device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a structural diagram of a beam location table, Fig. 3 is a structural diagram of a symbol information table, and Fig. 4 is an example of undefined references in a program. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an embodiment of the present invention. ◇Ub

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A character output device characterized by comprising means for associating a program file with a file having symbol information about the file.