JPS627573B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a copy control system for local copying, that is, copying and printing of display data, and particularly for display device copying that is applied to making a hard copy from a display device in a computer system to a printer device. Regarding control method.

There are at least two types of data displayed on a display device in a computer system: data that should be simply checked and data that should be saved as a record. The present invention refers to the case of processing the latter type of data, that is, data to be saved as a copy. To perform such processing, a plurality of display devices and a plurality of printer devices that cooperate with these devices, so-called local copying, are required. In general,
Data to be output to a printer device is often instructed by a host machine, a so-called CPU (central processing unit), but it is also necessary, of course, for an operator to be able to arbitrarily issue copy instructions by looking at the data displayed on a display device. In this case, in conventional local copy control, when an operator issues a copy instruction, the print format of the resulting copy is predetermined and fixed;
Most of them were simple printing formats in which the screen image displayed on a display device was copied exactly as it was.

However, in the case of a large computer system, the number of attached display devices and printer devices can reach as many as ten or more, and the installation locations of these devices also vary. In this case, a situation arises in which a certain copy printing format is required at a certain installation location, and another copy printing format is required at another installation location.
As a result, the conventional fixed printing format causes great inconvenience in terms of local copy operation. One possible solution to this inconvenience is for each operator to instruct the host machine about the desired print format via the keyboard.
However, instructing the host machine to change the print format each time naturally increases the burden on the host machine, and also has the disadvantage of interfering with highly efficient system operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose a new copy control system for display devices that can eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks.

In accordance with the above object, the present invention provides a control device interposed between a host machine and a plurality of printer devices and display devices, and the control device reedits data from the host machine and prints the data in a desired print format to the printer device. It is characterized in that the data is sent and printed.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system to which the method of the present invention is applied. In this figure, 1
1 is a host machine. The host machine 11 exchanges data with a group of display devices and a group of printer devices, which are local copies, via an interface 12. Display device group is 1
4-, 14'-, 14- to 14-, and the printers are designated 15, 15', 15''. These printers take hard copies of the data. The numerals . . . to represent the types of functions provided by the present invention. That is, the conventionally single and fixed printing format can be changed to, for example, up to 8 printing formats in the present invention.
This shows that there are many different types.

Further, a detailed explanation will be given with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the entire display device. However, the device structure itself is almost the same as the conventional one. In this figure, 14 is a display device, and a display section 2 consisting of a cathode ray tube or PDP (plasma display panel), etc.
1 and a keyboard section 22.
An example of a display on the display unit 21 is illustrated. On the other hand, the keyboard section 22 performs various input/output operations by operating its key group. Conventionally, when an operator presses the copy key 23, the corresponding printer device (one of 15, 15', 15'' in FIG. 1) can only print a copy of the display screen in a predetermined fixed print format. However, this was inconvenient in terms of operation, and printer paper was often wasted.

Therefore, based on experience, the following eight printing formats are defined, for example.

Copy only the input field...A. Extract only the essential parts, such as only the quantity information and unit price information, fill them in continuously, and print them out on the printer.

Copying only the input field according to the display screen...B For example, if any of the various items are preprinted on printer paper, it is sufficient to copy only that input field.

Copy the entire screen...C Copy everything from various items to product name and quantity, unit price, etc. However, the line spacing is left unopened and copied.

Copy the entire screen according to the display screen...D Copy everything from various items to product name, quantity, unit price, etc. in exactly the same pattern as displayed on the screen.

Feed the end line as described above...E If you feed the line after copying onto the printer paper, you can easily cut out and obtain the data part that was just copied.

Line feed after the above is completed......F The purpose is the same as above.

Line feed after the above is completed......G The purpose is the same as above.

Line feed after the above is completed...H The purpose is the same as above.

The above-mentioned printing formats ~ are distinguished, for example, by the above-mentioned symbols A~H, and if they are displayed in a part of the display section 21 in FIG. It is possible to recognize whether a copy is to be executed. 14- to 14- in FIG. 1 indicate that the above-mentioned printing format is maintained. Therefore, symbols A to H are displayed in each of the print format display columns 24. Note that in reality, it is not necessary to use all of the above printing formats, and they may be set in advance depending on the purpose (for example, at the time of system installation), or they may be changed at a later date if necessary. The control device 1 provided in a part of the interface 12 in FIG.
3, which is interposed between the host machine 11 and the display and printer group to perform predetermined operations.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of system operation to which the above-described local copy control method according to the present invention is applied. In this figure, it is assumed that a new system has been introduced (step-by-step). At the initial stage of system installation, the basic print format is specified uniformly for all display devices. This is done automatically (Stetsupro). Thereafter, depending on user needs, a demand arises for each display device to be changed to a unique printing format for use. Therefore, it is checked whether a printing format (one of the above) different from the basic printing format is required (step). If the result of the step is NO, the own printing format is registered (stored) in the corresponding table in the control device 13 according to the original basic printing format.
Do (stepho). On the other hand, the result of step
If YES, the operator manually specifies the desired print format via the keyboard (Step 2), and then similarly proceeds to Step 5. At this point, the printing format in the system is initialized, and then the system actually operates (go to step). A request to change the print format may occur even while the system is operating (step). Next, it is necessary to decide whether the request to change the printing format is temporary or long-term. If it is a long-term issue (NO), you will need to go back to STETSUPRO and completely change the designation. On the other hand, if it is temporary (YES), the operator himself/herself changes the printing format via the keyboard (step). At this time, it is necessary to save the original print format information from the table so as not to lose it (step). After going through this process,
Return to step 1 again to obtain the desired copy.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the control device 13 of FIG. 1. In this figure, only one pair of display device 14 and printer device 15 are shown. Also, Figures 1 and 2 in this figure
Components similar to those in the figures are designated by the same reference numerals. First, the control device 13 periodically sends a polling signal P to the display device 14 from the polling section 41 . That is, it is detected whether the device 14 is issuing any kind of request. If the copy key 23 is pressed by the operator at this time, as a response to the polling signal P,
Sends pending status information PS.
The device 13 receives this information PS and becomes active. Since the information PS that we just received is displaying a "copy request," first, let's move on to the screen buffer memory 4 where the data currently displayed on the screen is stored.
2, the data is taken into the control buffer memory 43. The contents of this control buffer memory 43 are transferred to the print buffer memory 44 as copy data.
However, before that, it is necessary to once re-edit the data within the device 13 so that it conforms to the desired printing format. One table 45 corresponding to the relevant display device indicates which type of printing format (~) this editing should be done in.
See. These tables cooperate with a recording medium 46 such as a floppy disk or a cassette tape.
Processing programs corresponding to various printing formats are sent to the control circuit 47. The circuit 47 edits the contents of the buffer memory 43 in accordance with the corresponding processing program and sends it to the buffer memory 44, and the printer device 15 outputs the contents of the buffer memory 44.

When the printing format is temporarily changed, the contents of the original table are saved in a spare table 45', and after the printing format is finished (cancelled), the original table is restored.

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a copy while appropriately selecting a desired print format from various print formats without placing a burden on the host machine, which is extremely economical in terms of system operation. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system to which the method of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an arbitrary one of the display devices shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a system according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of system operation to which the method is applied. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the control device 13 of FIG. In the figure, 11 is a host machine, 13 is a control device, 14-, 14'- to 14- are display devices, 15, 15', 15'' are printer devices, 21 is a display unit, 22
23 is a keyboard section, 23 is a copy key, and 24 is a print format display field.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A computer system comprising a central processing unit 11, a plurality of display devices 14, and a plurality of printer devices 15 cooperating therewith, the central processing unit 11, the plurality of display devices 15, and the A control circuit 47 and a control buffer memory 43 are connected to the plurality of printer devices 15.
and a table 45 that stores a processing program that corresponds to each of the plurality of display devices 14 and defines a printing format for printing the screen display contents of the display device 14.
3, the control circuit 47 is connected to the display device 14.
The contents displayed on one of the screens are taken into the control buffer memory 43, and the contents of the control buffer memory 43 are edited according to the print format defined by the processing program of the table 45 corresponding to the one display device 14. sending it to a printer device that cooperates with the one display device 14;
And, the printing format defined by the processing program is a format in which all of the contents of the control buffer memory 43 are not changed as is, a format in which only a specific part of the content is left and the rest is deleted, and a format in which the content is not changed or the specific The format specified in advance for each display device must be either a format in which only the above part is left and the rest is deleted with narrowed line spacing, or a format in which a line feed is added after each of the above formats. A copy control method for a display device characterized by: 2. The printing format corresponding to each of the display devices 14 can be changed by inputting from a keyboard included in the display device 14, and each of the display devices 14 displays the type of the corresponding printing format. Claim 1
Copy control method for display devices described in Section 2.