JPH027075B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for printing or displaying various types of characters such as Chinese characters. This relates to the kanji processing method, especially the processing of non-standard characters.

In conventional printing or display devices, for frequently used characters (hereinafter referred to as unique characters), the dot patterns are stored in a predetermined fixed storage device, and the dot patterns of the necessary characters are extracted from the character code. Get the pattern. For characters that are used infrequently (hereinafter referred to as variable characters), the dot pattern of the character is requested from the host device, and the dot pattern sent from the host is stored in a rewritable dot pattern storage device. The characters were stored and printed or displayed. With this method, if a large number of custom characters are generated and the storage device that stores the dot patterns of custom characters becomes full, processing cannot be continued, and even if it is possible to replace custom characters, it takes a lot of time to replace them. It was. Furthermore, among the variable characters, there are some that are used relatively frequently and others that are rarely used, and it is impossible to treat them the same in terms of efficiency.

The purpose of this invention is to eliminate the conventional problems as described above, by structuring the contents of a dot pattern storage device into hierarchies according to the frequency of use and purpose, and furthermore, by arranging the hierarchies freely according to the job. It is an object of the present invention to provide a kanji processing device that enables efficient non-standard character processing and significantly shortens processing time by changing the kanji characters.

Another objective is to make the most efficient use of the dot pattern storage device.

The feature of this invention is that the dot pattern storage device stores information about the usage frequency of characters, including unique characters.
The goal is to create a hierarchical structure whose boundaries can be freely changed depending on the purpose. Each of these hierarchies is called a level, and the unique character variable characters assigned to this level can be freely determined for each job depending on the number, frequency, and purpose of the characters used in that job.

Another feature is that it is possible to load (preload) dot patterns for each level prior to processing, which allows custom characters to be loaded all at once, and does not require overhead time each time a custom character is generated. In fact, only characters that are used less frequently among variable characters are loaded (on-demand load) each time a custom character occurs, and this character is assigned the lowest level and replacement is performed only within this level. time can be reduced.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment uses a kanji printer control device 1 (hereinafter referred to as
It consists of a kanji printer 2 (hereinafter referred to as KPR) and a kanji printer 2 (hereinafter referred to as KPR). The KPC 1 has a character code input line 1b, a custom character report line 1c that is sent out when there is no dot pattern for that character, and a dot pattern input line 1a that inputs the dot pattern between it and the host processing device. , KPR2, there is a dot pattern output line 1d that sends the dot pattern and a KPR control line 1e that controls the printer 2.
There is. The KPC1 uses the address conversion table 12 (hereinafter referred to as ATB) to obtain the address of the font memory (hereinafter referred to as FM) 14 containing the dot pattern from the character code sent from the host.
). The ATB address creation circuit 11 creates an address for the ATB 12. ATB
If it is not registered in 12, the external character determination circuit 13
Accordingly, if the FM address is reported to the host through the external character report line 1 and registered, the obtained FM address is stored in the page buffer memory (hereinafter referred to as PB) 15 that stores page editing information.

FIG. 2 shows the contents of the ATB 12 shown in FIG. 1 and the FM 14 that stores dot patterns, and is the central part of the present invention. ATB12, FM1
It is a 4-bit rewritable storage device, and its contents are hierarchically divided into three levels: level 0, level 1, and level 2. The ATB 12 consists of two parts: DAT, which can directly determine the FM address from the character code, and SAT, which sequentially scans the table to find the matching character code and obtain the FM address. For the former, unique characters and a portion of undefined codes are assigned because conversion can be performed in a short time. Since the latter requires a long conversion time, variable characters that are used less frequently are assigned. DAT has an empty space, which can be registered as a unique character depending on the job content. The capacity of DAT is fixed, and each entry is as shown in Figure 3a. V is "1" when this entry is valid, and "0" when it is invalid (deleted due to the contents of the job or an empty portion). Levels are set within the DAT depending on the frequency of use, and these levels are memorized in the entry. It is easy to invalidate entries for characters that are used infrequently by identifying this level. The FM address is FM1 where the dot pattern corresponding to the entry is stored.
4 address.

Each entry in SAT is as shown in Figure 3b, and the capacity of SAT can be changed freely by job, and external characters can be registered.
The difference from DAT is that you have to remember character codes. This is to search for an entry by comparing it with the character code sent from the host. Levels are classified as follows.

Level 0: Characters that are frequently used and are often used in every job Level 1: Characters that are frequently used within each job Level 2: Characters that are used less frequently Therefore, in general, there are unique characters at level 0. Variable characters are assigned to levels 1 and 2. Each level has a level pointer for ATB 12 and FM 14, indicating the next input address.

In the DAT, addresses of dot patterns of frequently used unique characters stored in the FM 14 are registered, and there is also an empty space, so additional registration can be made according to the contents of the job. Of course, when you register, the entry
A dot pattern is stored at the address of the FM 14 specified by the FM address. And the less frequently used characters other than those registered in DAT are
Students will be registered on the SAT according to their level as described above. Similarly, dot patterns are stored in the FM 14 in a classified manner. DAT and
If a character that is not registered in SAT is required, the dot pattern is requested from the host as a custom character, and if it is frequently used, it is registered in DAT, and if it is infrequently used, it is changed depending on the degree. and then register for the SAT. Of course FM1
4 stores dot patterns divided into levels.

Hereinafter, the operation will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. At the beginning of the job, it is currently registered (ATB12 V
is “1”, and the dot pattern is “1”.
Disable the external characters at level 1 (indicating that it is in FM14) and level 2 (set V in ATB12 to "0"). At this time, for DAT, it is only necessary to do V=0, but for SAT, each level has a pointer, and it is necessary to change this pointer. Level 1 for FM14 as well
returns the level 2 pointer to the level 0 pointer position.

After invalidating the external characters, input variable characters that are frequently used in this job, that is, SAT level 1 characters, from the character code input line 1b, and use the ATB address creation circuit 11 to input the ATB from the level 1 pointer.
Find the address and register it in ATB12. At this time
Requires FM address for ATB entry, so
Let the value of FM level pointer 1 be the FM address.
When the registration in the ATB 12 is completed, the level 1 and level 2 of the ATB 12 and the pointer and the level 1 and level 2 of the FM 14 and the pointer are advanced to the next level. After that, the dot pattern of that character is sent from the dot pattern input line 1a, so this is sent to the FM14.
Store in. At this time, the storage address is the ATB
This is the FM address registered in 12. In this way, they are registered at level 1 one after another. This level 1 registration method is called preload because it is performed prior to the transfer of print character information. (Preloading can be done in the same way for DAT.) Now that the frequently used variable characters within this job have been registered by preloading, the next step is to transfer the print characters.

First, the character code to be printed is the character code input line.
1b, and this code is converted into an ATB address by the ATB address generation circuit 11. If it is a unique character, create the address of the DAT entry corresponding to that character, or if it is a variable character, create the start address of the SAT area. This address is sent to ATB12, and one entry is sent out from ATB12 one after another.
The external character determination circuit 13 is entered. Here, when using DAT,
If V=1, the FM address is stored in the PB 15 as printer control information. If V=0, a custom character is reported to the host through the custom character report line 1C.
In the case of SAT, if V=1, the character code sent next is compared with the character code of SAT, and if they match, the FM address is stored in PB15 in the same way as DAT. If they do not match or V=0, then the next
Read the SAT entry and continue the same operation.
If the entire SAT is scanned and no matching entry is found, a custom character is reported to the host via the custom character report line 1C.

The host that receives the report of the external character inputs the dot pattern of that character from the dot pattern input line 1a, and this is stored in the FM address indicated by the level 2 pointer of the FM 14. At this time, if it is a DAT, V is "1", the level is 2, and the dot pattern is stored in the DAT entry corresponding to the character code.
Register the FM address and advance the level 2 pointer of FM14 to the next step. If it is SAT, V
"1", level 2, character code, and FM address are registered as the level 2 pointer of ATB12.
Advance the level 2 pointer of FM14 to the next level. This level 2 registration method is called on-demand load because it is performed every time a custom character occurs. When the dot pattern is stored in FM14, the FM is stored in PB15.
Store address.

In this way, the character code and print control information to be printed are stored in the PB15 for each page or line, and the KPR
When 2 is activated, KPR2 sequentially reads the contents of this PB15, puts it on the KPR control line 1e, and sends it to FM14.
Printing is performed by reading out the necessary dot pattern from the printer and controlling printing.

When level 2 is registered one after another and the level 2 registration area becomes full, replacement is performed within level 2, and unused characters are invalidated.

Among the registration methods in this embodiment, the preload method can be performed for any level. It also has the ability to disable any level,
It is possible to perform efficient custom character processing.

With the configuration and operation as described above, the following effects can be obtained in the present invention.

By categorizing characters according to their frequency of use, even if the frequency of use varies greatly from job to job, variable characters or unique characters can be loaded to the appropriate level by preloading, resulting in efficient processing. This makes it possible to significantly reduce processing time.

By fully dynamically allocating the FM area for storing dot patterns on a level-by-level basis, unique characters and frequently used variable characters can be stored without creating spaces in the middle, even with a small storage capacity, resulting in high usage efficiency. Become.

By assigning levels to unique characters, it is possible to add or delete one part as a unique character (level 0 preload).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of the address conversion table 12 of FIG. 1 and the FM 14 that stores the dot pattern,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of DAT and SAT entries in the ATB of FIG. 2. 1 in Figure 1 is the Kanji printer control device (KPC),
2 is a Kanji printer (KPR), 11 is an ATB address creation circuit, 12 is an address conversion table (ATB), 1
3 is an external character determination circuit, 14 is a font memory (FM) for storing dot patterns, 15 is a page buffer (PB) for storing KPR control information, 1a is a dot pattern input line, 1b is a character code input line, 1
c is the external character report line, 1d is the dot pattern output line,
1e indicates the KPR control line.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A storage device for storing character dot patterns, and an address of a unique character dot pattern stored in the storage device, which is uniquely stored based on an input character code. a first address table in which a position is specified and the dot pattern address is read; a second address table in which addresses of dot patterns of variable characters stored in the storage device and their character codes are stored in pairs; , if the input character code is a unique character, the dot pattern address is read from the first address table based on the character code, and if the input character code is a variable character, the character stored in the second address table is read. A kanji processing device comprising means for comparing a code and an input character code and reading out a dot pattern address paired with a matching character code from a second address table. 2. The kanji processing device according to claim 1, wherein the first address table and the second address table are located in the same memory.