US 2008/0174810 A1 · Fault tolerant printing system

Abstract

According to a technique described herein, whenever there are print jobs waiting in a currently idle printing device's queue, the printing device selects, from among those print jobs, the longest-waiting print job that does not require any resources that the printing device cannot currently supply without human intervention. The printing device removes that print job from the queue and prints that print job, even if other print jobs have been waiting longer in the queue. If the queue contains print jobs that the printing device cannot currently print because the printing device currently lacks sufficient resources to print those print jobs completely, then, for each such print job, the printing device displays reasons why that print job cannot currently be printed. The reasons may include information that identifies the qualities and/or quantities of the resources that the printing device currently lacks but needs.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for fault-tolerant printing, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of print jobs on a printing device, wherein two or more of the print jobs each require one or more resources that the printing device cannot currently provide;
placing each print job of the plurality of print jobs into a queue;
displaying, on a display of the printing device, a list that includes (a) an identity of each print job in the queue, and (b) for each print job that cannot currently be printed, an indication of one or more reasons why that print job cannot currently be printed;
automatically selecting, from the queue, a particular print job that is closest to a head of the queue among print jobs whose complete printing does not require any resources that the printing device cannot currently provide;
and
printing the particular print job at the printing device before printing one or more other print jobs that (1) are ahead of the particular print job in the queue and (2) require one or more resources that the printing device cannot currently provide.

3 more elements

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for printing a remotely stored print job, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

storing a plurality of print jobs on a printing device, wherein two or more of the print jobs each require one or more resources that the printing device cannot currently provide;
placing each print job of the plurality of print jobs into a queue;
displaying, on a display of the printing device, a list that includes (a) an identity of each print job in the queue, and (b) for each print job that cannot currently be printed, an indication of one or more reasons why that print job cannot currently be printed;
automatically selecting, from the queue, a particular print job that is closest to a head of the queue among print jobs whose complete printing does not require any resources that the printing device cannot currently provide;
and
printing the particular print job at the printing device before printing one or more other print jobs that (1) are ahead of the particular print job in the queue and (2) require one or more resources that the printing device cannot currently provide.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Fault tolerant printing system

Life of this patent

Fault tolerant printing system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24