US 5,668,936 AGranted

Printer for exclusively selecting a host apparatus and a command system for use with the selected host apparatus

AssigneeMita Industrial Co., Ltd.

InventorsShigenori Motooka, Kouichi Shibata

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Abstract

When data is sent from an arbitrary host interface out of a plurality of host interfaces for connecting a plurality of host apparatuses, the acceptance of the data is started, and the acceptance of data from the other host interfaces are inhibited. When it is judged that the acceptance of data corresponding to all pages sent has been terminated, a state where the acceptance of the data from the other host interfaces (from which data are inhibited from being accepted) is being inhibited is released. Consequently, even when data are simultaneously sent from two or more host apparatuses to a printer, it is possible to normally print out the data.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A printer for performing printing processing on the basis of data sent from a host apparatus having a command system, the host apparatus data having control characters including an escape character, and one or more characters subsequent to the escape character, the printer comprising:

first storing means for storing a plurality of printing programs corresponding to a plurality of command systems, the command systems each assigning different meanings to at least some characters subsequent to the escape character;
second storing means for storing, for each command system, the presence or absence of at least those control characters employed by each command system which are not common to all of the command systems;
third storing means for storing priorities assigned to each of the plurality of command systems;
first judging means for judging which of the plurality of command systems is a command system employing control characters included in data sent from the host apparatus on the basis of data stored in the second storing means, to thereby determine which of the plurality of command systems is a command system associated with the data sent from the host apparatus, the first judging means judging
a) for each of the plurality of command systems, in ascending priority order of each of the plurality of command systems, whether or not one or more of the control characters included in the data sent from the host apparatus is employed by each command system, and excluding command systems that do not employ the one or more of the control characters from being associated with the data sent from the host apparatus,
b) when a number of command systems which are not excluded from being associated with data sent from the host apparatus is one, that the one not excluded command system is to be associated with data sent from the host apparatus, and
c) when (i) every control character in the data sent from the host apparatus has been judged to determine whether each control character included in the data sent from the host apparatus is employed by each command system, and (ii) a number of command systems which are not excluded from being associated with data sent from the host apparatus is at least two, that the command system assigned a higher priority out of the at least two command systems is a command system to which the data sent from the host apparatus is associated.

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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

first storing means for storing a plurality of printing programs corresponding to a plurality of command systems, the command systems each assigning different meanings to at least some characters subsequent to the escape character;
second storing means for storing, for each command system, the presence or absence of at least those control characters employed by each command system which are not common to all of the command systems;
third storing means for storing priorities assigned to each of the plurality of command systems;
first judging means for judging which of the plurality of command systems is a command system employing control characters included in data sent from the host apparatus on the basis of data stored in the second storing means, to thereby determine which of the plurality of command systems is a command system associated with the data sent from the host apparatus, the first judging means judging
a) for each of the plurality of command systems, in ascending priority order of each of the plurality of command systems, whether or not one or more of the control characters included in the data sent from the host apparatus is employed by each command system, and excluding command systems that do not employ the one or more of the control characters from being associated with the data sent from the host apparatus,
b) when a number of command systems which are not excluded from being associated with data sent from the host apparatus is one, that the one not excluded command system is to be associated with data sent from the host apparatus, and
c) when (i) every control character in the data sent from the host apparatus has been judged to determine whether each control character included in the data sent from the host apparatus is employed by each command system, and (ii) a number of command systems which are not excluded from being associated with data sent from the host apparatus is at least two, that the command system assigned a higher priority out of the at least two command systems is a command system to which the data sent from the host apparatus is associated.

4 more elements