JPH0981342A - Print system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent printing of insignificant items by stopping printing of the subsequent print data when a print data abnormality discrimination means decides an abnormal analysis state of the print data. SOLUTION: The print data sent from the host computers 1 to 5 are received by an interface 8 under the control of a communication control part 16 of a printer 6. Then the received control code is analyzed in sequence by a command analysis part 13 at and after the head of the received data. If a control part 10 decides the abnormality of the analysis state, the part 10 performs the control to stop printing of the subsequent print data against the printer 6. Thus it is possible to discriminate the data that cannot be normally printed and therefore to prevent the print of insignificant items.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system including a host computer for transmitting print data based on a print control code system and a printing device for receiving and printing the print data transmitted from the host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus in a printing system of this type discriminates received print data from one of a plurality of print control code systems which it can interpret, and based on the discriminated print control code system, I was interpreting print data and printing.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the print data may be missing or garbled due to some abnormality in the communication path and interface. There is a problem in that the print data after the print data is missing or garbled is incorrect due to the print control code system, and thus meaningless matters may not be printed normally.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the above-mentioned conventional technique, and an object thereof is to print data after that when print data cannot be correctly interpreted. It is intended to provide a printing system that does not print.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a printing system according to a first aspect of the present invention is a host computer for transmitting print data based on a print control code system, and a print transmitted from the host computer. In a printing system including a printing device that receives and prints data, a print data analysis unit that analyzes the print data based on the print control code system, and an analysis state of the print data by the print data analysis unit is abnormal. A print data abnormality determining unit that determines whether or not there is a print data abnormality determination unit, and if the print data abnormality determination unit determines that the analysis state of the print data is abnormal, control is performed to stop printing of the print data thereafter. It is characterized by comprising control means.

In order to achieve the above object, the printing system according to claim 2 of the present invention is the printing system according to claim 1, wherein an abnormality is sent to the host computer to notify that the analysis state of the print data is abnormal. It is characterized in that a state notifying means is provided.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) First, the first embodiment of the present invention
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which host computers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 send print data based on a print control code system. To do. 6 is a printing device, which is a network 7
Is connected to the host computers 1 to 5 via.
Then, the printing device 6 can receive the print data transmitted from the host computers 1 to 5, form a print image image based on the print control code system, and perform a printing operation.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the internal control system of the printer 6 which is the main part of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 8 denotes an interface, which includes host computers 1 to 1.
Data is transmitted / received to / from the mobile station 5. Reference numeral 9 is a reception buffer for storing the received data. 1
0 is a control unit, which is a ROM (read-only memory) or RAM
It has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) including (read / write memory) and controls the entire printing device 6. Reference numeral 11 denotes a command error control unit, which performs control when an error (abnormality) occurs in a command analysis unit 13 described later. A command error information storage unit 12 stores information about a command error that occurs when an error occurs in a command analysis unit 13 described later and information indicating a command analysis state for print data currently being processed. . A command analysis unit 13 is print data (print control code) sent from the host computers 1 to 5.
Is to be analyzed. A pattern development unit 14 develops print data such as characters and figures. A development pattern storage unit 15 stores the print pattern data developed by the pattern development unit 14. A communication control unit 16 manages data transmission and reception based on a communication protocol with the host computers 1 to 5 via the network 7. An output unit 17 prints the print pattern data expanded by the pattern expansion unit 14 and stored in the expansion pattern storage unit 15. These interface 8, reception buffer 9, control unit 10, command error control unit 11, command error information storage unit 12,
The command analysis unit 13, the pattern expansion unit 14, the expansion pattern storage unit 15, the communication control unit 16, and the output unit 17 are connected by an internal bus 18.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the command error information storage unit 12, which is shown in FIG.
Indicates that the print data currently being processed is the command analysis unit 13
The command analysis state information section 19 and the command error detailed information section 20 which indicate whether or not the analysis is normally performed in step S1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the internal structure of the command analysis state information section 19 shown in FIG. 3, and the error flag 21 distinguishes between a normal state and an unanalyzable state. The unanalyzable state means that the print data currently being processed is the command analysis unit 1.
3 indicates that the analysis cannot be performed normally, and the error flag 21 is set. Further, the normal state indicates a state other than the unanalyzable state and a state in which the error flag 21 is not set.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an internal structure of the command error detailed information section 20 shown in FIG. 3, in which a parameter abnormality counter 22 indicating the number of times a parameter abnormality has occurred and an invalid instruction counter indicating the number of times an invalid instruction is recognized. 23 and an error determination value 24 which is a reference value arbitrarily set by the user.

Next, the operation of the printing system having the above structure will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The processing of FIG. 6 is performed by the control unit 10.

The print data transmitted from the host computers 1 to 5 is received by the interface 8 under the control of the communication control unit 16 of the printing device 6 in step S601, and the received print data is received in the reception buffer 9 in step S602. Stored in.

Next, in step S603, it is determined whether or not the print data is in the unanalyzable state. If the print data is in the unanalyzable state, the flow advances to step S607 to receive a command indicating the end of the print data (print data end command). Determine whether or not. If the print data end command is not received, the process returns to step S601. If the print data end command is received, the process proceeds to step S608, the error flag 21 of the command analysis state information unit 19 is cleared, and initialization is performed. Returns to the normal state.

On the other hand, if it is the normal state in step S603, the process proceeds to step S604, and the command analysis section 13 analyzes the control codes received sequentially from the beginning of the received data. Next, at step S605, it is determined whether there is a command error (control code error), specifically, a parameter error in the control code (when there is a parameter outside the specified range) or an invalid command (command not in the print control code system). To determine. If there is no command abnormality, the process advances to step S606 to expand the data by the pattern expanding unit 14 and expand the pattern storing unit 15
After storing in, the process returns to step S601.

On the other hand, if there is a command error in step S605, the process proceeds to step S609. Under the control of the command error control unit 11, if there is a parameter error, the command stored in the command error information storage unit 12 is entered. The value of the parameter abnormality counter 23 of the error detailed information section 20 or, in the case of an invalid instruction, the value of the invalid instruction counter 22 is incremented. Next, in step S610, it is determined whether or not the total value of the parameter abnormality counter 23 and the invalid instruction counter 22 exceeds the error determination value 24 arbitrarily set by the user, and it must be exceeded. If the above step S606
The pattern expanding unit 14 expands the data and stores it in the expanded pattern storage unit 15, and then the step S
Return to 601. Further, in step S610, the value of the parameter abnormality counter 23 and the invalid instruction counter 22
If the total value of the values exceeds the error determination value 24, it is determined in step S611 that the print data currently analyzed is not normally command-analyzed, and the print pattern stored in the developed pattern storage unit 15 is determined. Erase the data. Next, in step S612, the command error detailed information section 20
Value of the parameter abnormality counter 23 and the value of the invalid instruction counter 22 are initialized to 0, the error flag 21 of the command analysis state information section 19 is set in step S613, and the printing apparatus 6 is set in the unanalyzable state, S601
Return to.

As described above, according to the printing system according to the first embodiment, by detecting the command abnormality of the print data received from the host computers 1 to 5,
Since it is possible to determine the data that cannot be printed normally, meaningless matters are not printed.

(Second Embodiment) Next, the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. The basic configuration of the printing system according to the second embodiment is
Since this is the same as FIGS. 1 to 5 in the first embodiment described above, these figures will be diverted and described.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation control procedure of the printing system according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the control processing procedure of the host computer.

In the above-described first embodiment, even if the printer 6 shifts to the unanalyzable state, the received data from the host computers 1 to 5 is ignored until the print data end command is received. However, in the second embodiment, after shifting to the unanalyzable state in step S713 of FIG. 7, the process proceeds to step S714, and the printing device 6 is connected to the host computers 1 to 5 of the print data transmission source. The interface 8 is notified under the control of the communication control unit 11 that the analysis cannot be performed.

Incidentally, step S701 to step S in FIG.
713 is step S of FIG. 6 in the first embodiment.
Since it is the same as Steps 601 to S613, its description is omitted.

On the side of the host computers 1 to 5, the print data is transmitted to the printer 6 in step S801 of FIG.
In step S802, it is determined whether the data has ended. If the data has not ended, step S80
In step 3, it is determined whether or not an unanalyzable state notification signal has been received from the printing device 6. If the unanalyzable state notification signal is not received, the process returns to step S801. If the unanalyzable state notification signal is received, and the step S802 is performed.
If it is determined that the data has ended, the process proceeds to step S804, the print data transmission process is stopped, and a print end command signal is transmitted to the printer 6, and then the present process operation ends.

As described above, according to the printing system of the second embodiment, the host computers 1 to 5 as the source of the print data are notified that the print data cannot be printed normally, and the host computers 1 to 5 By stopping the data transmission process of, the printing device 6 can be released more quickly.

[0025]

As described above in detail, according to the printing system of the first aspect of the present invention, by detecting the command abnormality of the print data received from the host computer, it is possible to discriminate the data that cannot be printed normally. Therefore, it is possible to prevent printing of meaningless items.

Further, according to the printing system of the second aspect of the present invention, by notifying the host computer of the print data transmission source that the print data cannot be printed normally, and stopping the data transmission processing of the host computer, It is possible to release the printing device faster.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system of a printing apparatus in the printing system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a command error information storage unit in a control system of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a command analysis state information section in the command error information storage section.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a command error detailed information section in the command error information storage section.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation control procedure of the printing system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation control procedure of the printing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation control procedure of a host computer in the printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 host computer 2 host computer 3 host computer 4 host computer 5 host computer 6 printing device 7 network 8 interface 9 reception buffer 10 control unit 11 command error control unit 12 command error information storage unit 13 command analysis unit 14 pattern expansion unit 15 expansion pattern Storage unit 16 Communication control unit 17 Output unit 18 Internal bus

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printing system comprising: a host computer that transmits print data based on a print control code system; and a printing device that receives and prints the print data transmitted from the host computer. Print data analyzing means for analyzing based on a control code system; print data abnormality determining means for determining whether or not the print data analysis state by the print data analyzing means is abnormal; A printing system, comprising: a control unit that controls to stop printing of print data after that when it is determined that the analysis state of the print data is abnormal. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising an abnormal state notifying unit that notifies the host computer that the analysis state of the print data is abnormal.