JPH08292854A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an information processor which provide the convenience that while a print job is in process, another print job can be performed by interruption. CONSTITUTION: A drawing control program 171 generates print data. The queue generating means of a spooler 172 divides the print data to generate plural print queues 173. The queue rearranging means of the spooler 172 rearranges the print queues 173 according to inputted order change information to change the print order. A printer 5 performs a printing process according to the print queues 173 which are changed in the print order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for generating and printing a print queue.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the user interface of a computer has been improved, and a plurality of application programs can be simultaneously opened on a single screen and operated, such as Microsoft Windows.

Conventionally, there is known a technique of creating a queue called a spooler or a queue in order to maintain the consistency of such a plurality of application programs or to release the CPU from a print job quickly.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, it is impossible to change the printing order because there is only one queue. This has been a serious problem especially when printing a large file and when urgently wanting to print another small file.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides an information processing apparatus having the convenience of being able to interrupt and print another print job during the printing of the print job. The purpose is to do.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems The means of the present invention for solving the above problems will be described.

An information processing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention is a print data generating means for generating print data, and a queue generating means for dividing the print data into a plurality to generate a plurality of print queues. Queue changing means for changing the print order by changing the plurality of print queues based on the input order change information, and a print queue generated by the queue generating means or a print order by the queue changing means. And a printing means for performing printing in accordance with the changed print queue.

An information processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the print queue generation means generates a print queue in page units.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus, when a new print queue is created by the print data creating means while the print queue is being printed by the printing means, the queue is created. The replacement means is characterized in that the newly created print queue is arranged next to the queue currently being printed.

[0010]

The operation of the present invention having the above construction will be described.

According to the information processing apparatus of the first aspect of the invention, the queue switching means switches the plurality of print queues generated by the queue generating means based on the input order change information. Change the print order.
The printing unit prints according to the print queue whose printing order has been changed.

According to the information processing apparatus of the second aspect, the print queue generating means generates the print queue in page units.

According to the information processing apparatus of the third aspect of the present invention, the queue switching means is currently printing the newly created print queue when a new print queue is created. Arrange next to the queue.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printer-integrated personal computer as an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

The printer-integrated personal computer has an apparatus main body 101, and an upper cover 104 rotatably attached to the apparatus main body 101 via hinges 104a provided at both ends thereof, and the apparatus main body 101.
A keyboard 102 having various keys such as a paper feed key and a print stop key arranged in front of the upper surface of the
A printer unit 2 that is housed behind the upper surface of the apparatus body 101 and uses an inkjet type recording head (see FIG. 3) 5012 described later is configured.

The upper cover 104 has a display section 103,
When the device is used, the display unit 103 can be opened to a position where it can be easily seen, and when not used, it can be closed to function as a cover. In the display unit 103, for example,
A liquid crystal display (LCD) (see FIG. 2) 409 is applied.

The printer unit 2 has an opening (not shown) that can be opened and closed by the operator, and has a recording head (see FIG. 3) described later.
5012 can be exchanged.

The recording paper 3 is inserted from a paper feed port 101a provided at the bottom of the keyboard 102, and the main body 101 of the apparatus is inserted.
The paper is conveyed in a conveyance path that penetrates the inside and is ejected from a paper ejection port (not shown) at the rear of the apparatus main body 101.

The keyboard 102 is rotatably attached via hinges 102a provided on both sides of the apparatus body 101. This allows the keyboard 10 to be used even when the recording paper 3 having a relatively short length such as an envelope or a postcard is used.
2 can be opened at the top and inserted into the inner part of the conveyance path of the recording paper 3. As described above, since the conveyance path for the recording paper 3 is provided below the keyboard 102, various operations using the keyboard 102 and the display unit 103 can be performed even when the recording paper 3 is set.

In this embodiment, the so-called computer section except the printer unit 2 is called a host computer.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of this host computer.

The host computer 4 has a central processing unit (CPU) 401 which controls the main control.
Numerical operation processor (FPU) 402, CP
BIOS ROM for instructing basic control of U401
(Basic input Output System
m ROM) 403, system memory (RAM) 40
4, real time clock (RTC) 405, DMA controller (DMAC) 406, interrupt controller (IRQC) 407, VGA (Video Graph)
ic Array) controller (VGAC) 408 through liquid crystal display (LCD) 409, keyboard controller (KBC) 410 through the keyboard (KB) 102, floppy disk controller (F)
Floppy disk (FDD) 4 via DC) 411
12, a hard disk (HDD) 414, a timer (TI) via a hard disk controller (HDC) 413.
MER) 415, serial interface (SIO) 4
16 and an expansion port (PORT) 417 are connected to each other.

The CPU 401 is the FDD 412 or the HDD 4
The application program is read from 14 via the FDC 411 or the HDC 413, and the program is executed using the RAM 404. Execution contents according to the present invention will be described later with reference to FIGS. As a method of displaying the screen when executing the application program, the VGAC 408 is used to display the LCD 409.
Is displayed, and key input from the KB 102 is performed via the KBC 410.

The numerical processor (FPU) 402 is
The CPU 401 supports arithmetic processing.

Real-time clock (RTC) 405
Indicates the elapsed time at the present time, and the operation is performed by the dedicated battery even when the power of the entire system is turned off.

DMA controller (DMAC) 406
Is between memory and memory, between memory and I / O, I / O-I
CP for high-speed data transfer between I / O
Data is transferred without the intervention of U401.

Interrupt controller (IRQC) 407
Receives an interrupt from each I / O and performs processing according to the priority order.

The timer (TIMER) 415 includes a free-running timer of several channels and manages various times.

SIO 416 and expansion port (PORT)
Reference numeral 417 is an external connection, and the expansion port (PORT) 417 is an L port that notifies the user of the operating status.
ED is provided.

The printer 5 is connected to the host computer 4 by a general-purpose parallel interface, and data is transmitted / received at the register level of the I / O port, and the image of the connection is the same as when it is exchanged with an external printer. Become.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining the internal structure of the printer unit 2.

The printer unit 2 uses an ink jet recording system and includes an ink tank 5001 and
Recording head 5012 coupled to ink tank 5001
Is provided. The ink tank 5001 and the recording head 5012 form an integral type replaceable cartridge 5100.

The printer unit 2 also causes the carriage 5014 for mounting the cartridge 5100 to the printer body, the guide 5003 for scanning the carriage 5100 in the sub-scanning direction, and the recording paper 3 for scanning in the main scanning direction. Platen roller 5000 for
And a feed motor 5024 for rotating the platen roller 5000. The carriage 50
In FIG. 14, a flexible cable (not shown) for supplying a signal pulse current for driving to the recording head 5012 and a current for head temperature control is provided on a printed circuit board equipped with an electric circuit for controlling the printer 5 ( (Not shown).

Further, the printer unit 2 having the above configuration will be described in detail.

In the printer unit 2, the driving force transmission gear 501 is interlocked with the forward / reverse rotation of the carriage motor 5013.
Lead screw 500 rotating through 1,5009
4 and a pin (not shown) lead screw 5004
Of the carriage 5014, a carriage 5014 that engages with the spiral groove 5005 and reciprocates in the directions of arrows a and b, a paper pressing plate 5002 that presses the recording paper 3 against the platen 5000 along the moving direction of the carriage 5014, and Photocouplers 5007 and 5008 as home position detecting means for confirming the presence of the lever 5006 in this area and switching the rotation direction of the motor 5013, and a cap member 5 for capping the front surface of the recording head 5012.
A member 5016 that supports 022, and a cap inner closure 50
A suction means 5015 for performing suction recovery of the recording head 5012 via a cleaning blade 5017, a cleaning blade 5017, a member 5019 supported by a main body support plate 5018 to allow the blade 5017 to move in the front-rear direction, and a carriage 501.
4 and a lever 5021 for starting the suction for the suction recovery. The driving force from the carriage motor 5013 is controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching to move in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 that engages with No. 4. are doing.

Needless to say, the blade 5017 is not limited to this form and a known cleaning blade can be applied to this embodiment. That is, this printer unit 2
Reversely rotates the carriage motor 5013 from the home position of the carriage 5014 to switch from one power transmission gear 5011 to the other power transmission gear 5010, and the driving force from the carriage motor 5013 is applied to the lever 5012 via the cam 5020. It is configured so that the recording head 5012 can be caved and cleaned, and suction recovery can be performed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the control system of the printer 5.

The printer 5 is a CPU for controlling the printer.
(# 2) 501 and a ROM (# that stores a printer control program, printer emulation, and print fonts).
2) 502, and a non-volatile RAM (# 2) 50 for storing development data for printing and data received from the host 4
3 and the recording head 5012 and the motor 501 of the printer 5.
3, a printer driver 504 for driving the printer 3, and a printer controller 505 for controlling access to the memory, exchanging data with the host 4, and sending a control signal to the printer driver 504. Printer driver 504
Is a head driver 50 that drives the recording head 5012.
4a and a motor driver 504b.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the recording head 5012 and the head driver 504a.

In the recording head 5012, ejection units having 64 ejection ports # 1 to # 64 and R1 to R6 provided corresponding to the ejection ports # 1 to # 64, respectively.
And a heating resistor as an ejection energy generating element. It should be noted that # 1 to # 64 indicate numbers corresponding to the positions of the discharge ports provided in the discharge unit.

The head driver 504a has a common side driver circuit C and a segment side driver circuit S.

The heating resistors R1 to R64 are divided into blocks in units of eight, and the switching transistors Q2 to Q of the common side driver circuit C are shared by each block.
8 are connected. The transistors Q1 to Q8 turn on / off the energization path in response to turning on / off of the control signals COM1 to COM8, respectively. In addition, each heating resistor R1 to R64
D1 to D64 arranged in the energization path to the back are diodes for backflow prevention.

For the heating resistors located at corresponding positions between the blocks, the segment side driver circuit C is turned on / off.
The off transistors Q9 to Q16 are connected. The transistors Q1 to Q16 have control signals SEG1 to SE, respectively.
The energization path for the heating resistor is turned on / off according to turning on / off of G8.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart for driving the head with such a configuration. At a certain position in the head scanning direction, the common side control signals COM8 to COM1 are sequentially turned on. When the block is turned on, one block is selected to be in a state in which it can be energized. Therefore, in the selected block, the segment side control signal SE is generated according to the image recorded.
By turning G8 to SEG1 on or off, the heating resistor is selectively energized, and ink is ejected according to the heat generation to perform dot recording.

Drive control of the carriage motor 5013 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 is a configuration diagram of the carriage motor 5013 and the motor driver 504b, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the drive timing.

Coil Φ as carriage motor 5013
By appropriately turning on / off the switching transistors TR1 to TR4 connected to the coils by the drive signals CM1 to CM4 by using the stepping motor having 1 to Φ4, the two-phase excitation method is used as shown in FIG. To drive. The feed motor 5024 has the same configuration,
It is driven by the drive signals FM1 to FM4.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the printer controller 505.

As a functional block of the printer controller 505, an I / O data register 5050 for exchanging data at the command level with the host 4, and the received data from the register 5050 in the RAM (#
2) Receive buffer controller 5 that writes directly to 503
051, and a print buffer controller 5052 that reads print data from the print data buffer of the RAM (# 2) 503 and sends control signals COM1 to COM8 / SEG1 to SEG8 to the head driver 504a.
In addition, three directions (that is, C
PU (# 2) 501, reception buffer controller 505
1, a memory controller 5053 for controlling memory access from the print buffer controller 5052).

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a map of the I / O data register (shown in FIG. 9) 5050 of the printer.

Among them, the motor control port controls the port by directly rewriting the value of the register to drive the respective motors 5013 and 5024 (C
M1-CM4, FM1-FM4).

The print buffer area is used to set a data area required for printing, and the start address (PB STA
(RT) and the end address (PB END) are set to set the print buffer controller 505 within the range.
2, the print data is sequentially read from the start address, the print data is read from the RAM (# 2) 503 until the end address, and a control signal is sent to the head driver 504a. At this time, the print data address pointer (PB POINT) indicates the data address of the data currently being sent.

Similarly, in the reception data buffer area, a data area necessary for reception is set, and a start address (IB START) and an end address (IB END) are set.
Is set, the reception buffer controller 5051 sequentially writes the reception data from the start address within the range, and the RAM (#
2) Write the received data in 503. At this time, the reception data address pointer (IB POINT) indicates the data address that has already received the data.

In FIG. 11, the RAM (#
2) Address areas of the print buffer (PB) and the receive buffer (IB) on 503 are shown. Each address is designated in the printer I / O register as shown in FIG. The interface area is a common I / O area between the host 4 and the printer 5. The interface area is an area for exchanging data with the host 4, and corresponds to a parallel interface port in the host 4.

The interface area will be described with reference to FIG. 12 showing the correlation between the interface areas of the host 4 and the printer 5.

I / O data and I / O on the host 4 side
The status and I / O control registers show the same addresses as the I / O data, I / O status, and I / O control registers on the printer 5 side (n, n + 1, when viewed from the host 4 side). The address map is set so that the (n + 2) address can correspond to the (m, m + 1, m + 2) address viewed from the printer 5 side.

That is, the address of this portion is a register which can be read and written bidirectionally.

The host 4 side is also provided with an I / O register for controlling peripheral devices, which is used for I / O control within the host 4. That is, the I / O area of each block shown in FIG. 2 is provided, and only the interface control area therein is common to the interface area of the I / O register on the printer 5 side. There is. FIG. 12 shows the relationship.

The respective processes after the power is turned on on the host 4 side will be described below with reference to the flowcharts.

First, the process when the power is turned on will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the power is turned on, a soft reset process is performed by the keyboard 102 and a POST process is performed (S10). This POST processing is Power on
In self-test, a test and an initialization of each hardware are executed.

Next, for starting the system program,
The boot program is loaded (S11). The boot program is FD (floppy disk) or HD
It is stored in a (hard disk) or the like, and is arranged in, for example, track 0 and selector 1. Track 0, selector 1
The boot program is loaded by loading in the memory. The steps S10 to S11 exist in the BIOS ROM 403.

Next, the loaded boot program is executed (S12). The boot program is FD or H
This is a program that loads a program for loading an OS program from D.

Next, the OS load program is loaded (S13), and the OS load program is executed (S1).
4). The OS load program is a program for loading the OS in the memory. First, the I / O driver is loaded (S15). The I / O driver is
It is a program for controlling I / O, and the OS exchanges data with various I / Os by an I / O driver.

Next, the I / O is tested and initialized (S
16) The OS is loaded into the memory (S17). When the OS is ready to be executed in the steps so far, the OS is moved to execution (S18). OS is the keyboard 102
Process input, display various messages on the display unit 103, and interact with the operator. The OS executes various command processes according to the input of various commands by the operator.

Next, the PO of step S10 in FIG.
Details of the ST process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Test of CPU (FPU (numerical operation processor, coprocessor) 402 in FIG. 2 (S20), ROM
(S21), the power supply and the battery are checked (S22), and the LCD 409 and the LCD adapter are tested and initialized. The LCD adapter includes a RAM and a ROM (S23). Next, the interrupt controller (IRQC) 407 is tested and initialized (S24). Next, timer test (S25), DM
AC405 test (S26), keyboard (KB) 1
02, the keyboard controller (KBC) 410 is tested (S27). Next, the serial / parallel port is tested and initialized (S28). Next, it is checked whether it is a soft reset (S29). If it is a soft reset, the RAM test and the initialization process in step S30 are skipped and the process proceeds to step S31. If not soft reset, the process proceeds to step S30 to test and initialize the RAM. Next, FD (floppy disk) test (S3
1), HD (hard disk) test (S32), real-time clock test (S33), and printer 5 test (S34). The printer 5 is tested by checking various printer ports and checking printer connection. Next, the LED test is performed (S35). Then return. With the above processing, the POST processing shown in step S10 of FIG. 13 is performed, and if there is an error or the like in each device, those are notified.

Next, the keyboard interrupt processing and the key code acquisition processing will be described.

The keyboard interrupt processing is performed by the keyboard 1
The keyboard controller (KB
C) An interrupt is generated from 410, processed by an interrupt controller (IRQC) 407, and keyboard interrupt processing is executed. In the key code acquisition process, the key code saved by the keyboard interrupt is taken out from the key buffer and is returned to the process requiring the key code. Although the key buffer is not shown, it is not shown in FIG.
It is provided in the BIOS common area on AM403.
The keyboard interrupt process is assigned to a hardware interrupt entry or the like on the interrupt map (not shown) of each I / O, and the key code acquisition process is assigned to a software interrupt entry or the like. Execution is performed by interrupts from the keyboard 102 and calls from the software.

Next, the processing when a keyboard interrupt occurs will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when a keyboard interrupt occurs,
The key scan code is read from the board assigned to the I / O keyboard 102 (S40). It is determined whether the read code is a code corresponding to a soft reset (S41), and if Yes, the print buffer clear command transmission is executed, and after execution, the actual soft reset operation is started (S42). If the read code is not a soft reset, it is confirmed whether the keyboard buffer is full (S43). If it is full, a beep sound is generated as a warning and the process ends (S4).
4). If it is not full, the key scan code is converted into a key code corresponding to the character code (S45), and the converted key code is set in the key buffer (S46).
Then, the process ends.

As described above, the buffer clear command is transmitted to the printer 5 when the soft reset is executed in the keyboard interrupt process, and the buffer clear process of the printer 5 is performed.

Next, the key code acquisition process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the key code acquisition is started, it is first checked whether or not there is a key code in the keyboard buffer (S50). If not, this check (S50) is repeated until the key code buffer is entered.
If the key code exists, it is checked whether the key code needs to be converted (S51), and if it is necessary, the key code is converted (S52). Note that the key code conversion mainly occurs when the keyboard is different for each country.

If the conversion of the key code is not necessary and if the conversion is performed in step S52 because of the necessity, then the key code is set in the register for returning the key code (S53), and the process is executed. finish.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram for explaining the function of the control program relating to the control of the printing process in this embodiment.

When performing printing, the application program 170 passes a print command to the drawing control program (print data generation means) 171. The drawing control program 171 sends the application program 17 to the printer driver 504 corresponding to the printer to be printed.
A print command from 0 is converted into a printer driver command and passed. The printer driver 504 creates command data for the printer 5 according to the printer driver command. The printer driver 504 passes the created command data for the printer 5 to the drawing control program 171. The drawing control program 171 passes this to the spooler 172 which is a means for issuing a print instruction. The spooler 172 temporarily puts the data passed from the drawing control program 171 into the print queue 173 without immediately outputting it to the printer 5. The storage in the print queue 173 is performed in units of a group of print data called a “print job” 174. For example, print data of one document of a word processor, a specific page, or the like that the operator has instructed to print at one time becomes one print job 174.
It is assumed that there are one or more spoolers 172. It is assumed that the spooler 172 can inform the drawing control program 171 of the number of print jobs 174 currently in its own print queue 173. The drawing control program 171 appropriately allocates the print job 174 in consideration of the load of the spooler 172.

When a plurality of spoolers 172 exist, if the command data is output to the printer 5 at the same time, correct printing cannot be performed. Therefore, the drawing control program 171 performs exclusive control.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the spooler 172.

The spooler 172 includes a print queue generating means 1720 for generating the print queue 173, a print queue registering means 1721 for registering the print job 174 in the print queue 173, and a print job 174 for the print queue 1.
Print queue extracting means 1723 for extracting from the print queue 73
And a print queue changing means 1724 for changing the order of the print jobs 174 in the print queue 173, and a print queue report for reporting the number, order, contents, etc. of the print jobs 174 in the print queue 173 to other means. Means 1725
It consists of and.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of the print job 174.

The print job 174 is composed of command data 174a for the printer 5 in units of one or more pages. The command data 174a is output to the printer 5 in page units. Here, the term “page” means an output unit to the printer 5, and does not necessarily correspond to a physical page. In the description of this embodiment, the word page is used in this sense.

In this configuration, the setting command for the printer 5 is issued every time a page is output. By this, 1
In one print job 174, the pages can be normally printed without continuously printing the pages from the first page to the last page. That is, no matter how the page output order is changed in one print job 174, the same result as when printing from the first page can be obtained by rearranging the page order after printing. In addition, in the plurality of print jobs 174, the job 17
No matter how the page print order is changed among the four pages, the pages can still be printed normally. further,
After printing the page, even if another page is printed after turning off the power of the printer 5, the page can still be printed normally.

To change the print order of the print job 174, the spooler 172 asks the print control program for permission to use the printer 5 when printing one page, and the print control program has a high priority. 1
This is realized by controlling so that the spooler 172 having another print job 174 is not permitted to use the printer 5 until the printing of 74 is completed.

Hereinafter, the procedure will be described separately for the print processing by the spooler 172 and the processing procedure of the drawing control program 171.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing the procedure of print processing by the spooler 172.

The spooler 172 checks whether or not there is a print job 174 in the print queue 173 (S60), and if there is no print job 174 (S60, No), waits for a certain time (S61) and then waits for printing again. It is checked whether or not there is a print job 174 in the matrix 173. If there is a print job 174 in the print queue 173 (S60, Yes), one print job 174 is taken out from the print queue 173 (S60).
63).

After that, the spooler 172 requests the drawing control program 171 to use the printer 5 (S6).
4). The drawing control program 171 uses the other spooler 17
It is checked whether the printer 2 is currently in a state where it cannot be used because the printer 2 is using the printer 5 (S66).

If the printer 5 cannot be used (S66, No), the spooler 172 waits for a certain period of time (S65) and requests permission to use the printer 5 again. If the printer 5 can be used (S66, Yes), the spooler 172 calls the drawing control program 171 without immediately outputting the printer command to the printer 5 (S6).
7). The drawing control program 171 instructs the spooler 172 to enter the waiting state if it is in a state where it should enter the waiting state, and otherwise instructs nothing.

The spooler 172 is the drawing control program 1
If it is instructed to enter the waiting state from 71 (S66, Y
es), enters a waiting state for a fixed time (S69), and calls the drawing control program 171 again.

If the drawing control program 171 does not instruct to enter the waiting state (S68, No), the spooler 172 sends a printer command for one page to the printer 5
(S70). Here, the spooler 172 checks whether processing of all pages has been completed (S71), and if processing has been completed (S71, Yes), the drawing control program 17
1 is notified of the end of printing and the printer 5 is opened (S7
2) It is again checked whether or not there is a print job 174 in the print queue 173 (S60). If there are unprocessed pages (S
No. 71, No), the drawing control program 171 is called again, and a printer command is output to the printer 5 while checking whether to enter the waiting state. This process thereafter is repeated.

Here, interrupting the print job 174 currently being printed and printing another print job 174 is called interrupt printing, and the print job 174 that is interrupted and printed first is called an “interrupt job”. I will decide. The processing of the drawing control program 171 in interrupt printing will be described.

When the printing of the interrupt job 174 is completed, the printing of the interrupted job 174 is restarted. The interrupt timing is in page units.

As described above, in the configuration of this embodiment, the setting command for the printer 5 is issued every time a page is output, and the job 1 is selected from the plurality of print jobs 174.
No matter how the page print order is changed between 74, the pages can be printed normally, so that normal print results can be obtained by rearranging the pages in order later. .

In the present embodiment, the operator selects the interrupt job 174 for selection. For example, the drawing control program 171 inquires of all spoolers 172 currently in the system about the number, order, and contents of the current print jobs 174, and presents it to the operator using a display means such as a CRT. A print job (interrupt job) 17 that the print job 174 currently being printed is temporarily interrupted by an input means such as a keyboard, a mouse, etc. and immediately printed
4 is designated by the operator. Since the designation method is a conventional technique, the details are omitted.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the structure of the drawing control program 171 related to the interrupt job 174.

Regarding the interrupt job 174, the drawing control program 171 includes an interrupt job specifying means 1710 for allowing the operator to specify the interrupt job 174, and an interrupt job storage means 17 for storing the interrupt job 174.
11 and an interrupt job holding spooler storage unit 1712 that stores a spooler (interrupt job holding spooler) 172 that holds the interrupt job 174.

FIG. 22 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure of the drawing control program 171 in interrupt printing.

The drawing control program 171 includes the interrupt job 174 designated by the operator and the interrupt job 174.
And the spooler 172 that holds (S80),
The spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 is instructed to replace the interrupt job 174 so that it is at the head of the print queue 173 (S81).
The spooler 172 performs the swap as instructed. In this case, the spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 and the spooler 172 having the print job 174 currently being printed may or may not be the same. In either case, as described above, the order of pages is different from the order of printing in the order of the print job 174, but any page can be normally printed as a page. A normal print result can be obtained by rearranging the pages in order. In the former case, printing of another print job 174 is performed from a page in the middle of one print job 174, but a normal print result can still be obtained.

As described in the description of FIG. 21, the spooler 172 having the print job 174 currently printing is in order to check whether it should enter the waiting state before starting printing one page, and The drawing control program 171 is called to notify the end of printing (S82).
If the call is the print end notification of the print job 174 (S8)
3, Yes), the drawing control program 171 clears the interrupt job 174 and the memory of the spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 (S84), and enters the waiting state (S85). After this, the control spooler is returned to.

If the call is not the print end notification of the print job 174 (S83, No), the interrupt job 174
Is checked to see if it is a printer use request from the spooler 172, and if not (S86, No), the spooler 1
It instructs 72 to enter the waiting state (S88), and also enters the waiting state (S85). If it is a printer use request from the spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 (S86, Yes), this instruction is not issued (S8).
7). After this, the self enters a waiting state (S85).

Checking for a printer use request from the spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 is performed by checking the interrupt job 174 and the interrupt job 174.
It is not performed when the memory of the spooler 172 holding the is cleared.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, the method of designating the interrupt job 174 in the first embodiment does not allow the operator to designate it, but the print job 174 most recently generated is designated as an "interrupt job". In this way, the operator's most recent attempt to print is printed earliest.

The difference from the first embodiment is that the drawing control program 171 stores the most recently generated print job 174 by the interrupt job designating means 1710, and
This is that the spooler 172 holding the interrupt job 174 is automatically stored by the interrupt job holding spooler storage means 1712. Since the other points are the same as those in the first embodiment, the details are omitted.

As described above, according to each of the above embodiments, the plurality of spoolers 172 are provided, the print processing of the print job 174 by the spooler 172 is performed in page units, and the print processing of one page is started. First, the drawing control program 171 is inquired whether the printer 5 can be used. In addition, the drawing control program 171
The priority is given to the print job 174, and the usage right of the printer 5 is given to the print job 174 having a high priority.
With this configuration, it is possible to print by interrupting another print job during the printing of a print job, which has been conventionally impossible to print another print job until the printing of one print job is completed. This makes it possible to obtain an excellent effect that the convenience of printing for the operator can be enhanced.

[0107]

According to the present invention described in detail above, the following effects can be obtained.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since a plurality of print queues are prepared and the print order of the print queues can be changed, another print job is interrupted and printed during printing of the print job. It is possible to provide an information processing apparatus having the convenience that can be achieved.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the print queue is generated in page units, it is easy to change the print order.

According to the third aspect of the invention, when it is desired to urgently print another print job during the printing of the print job, the urgent print job can be printed next to the print job being printed. Therefore, the convenience of printing for the operator can be further enhanced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printer-integrated personal computer according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a host computer of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view for explaining the internal configuration of the printer unit of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control system of the printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a recording head and a head driver of this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart of head driving according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a carriage motor and a motor driver of this embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart of driving by the motor driver of the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a printer controller of the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a map of a printer I / O register of this embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing address areas of a print buffer and a receive buffer on RAM # 2 of the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a correlation between I / O areas of a host computer and a printer according to this embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process when the power is turned on in this embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a POST process of this embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing keyboard interrupt processing of the present embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a key code acquisition process of this embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram for explaining a function of a control program relating to control of print processing in the present embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a spooler of this embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a configuration diagram of a print job according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a configuration diagram of a drawing control program related to an interrupt job according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing print processing of the spooler of this embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing the processing of a drawing control program in interrupt printing according to this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 host computer 5 printer 171 drawing control program (print data generation means) 173 print queue 174 print job 401 CPU 1720 queue generation means 1724 print queue replacement means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A print data generating unit for generating print data, a queue generating unit for dividing the print data into a plurality of units to generate a plurality of print queues, and the plurality of units based on the input order change information. And a print queue generated by the queue generating means or the print order is changed by the queue changing means, after changing the print order. And a printing unit that performs printing according to the print queue. 2. The print queue generation means generates a print queue on a page-by-page basis.
Information processing equipment. 3. When a new print queue is created by the print data creating means while the print queue is being printed by the printing means, the queue swapping means is configured to print the newly created print queue. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the queue is arranged next to the queue currently being printed.