Patent ID: 7283268

Claim:
A printer for printing on a web of record members comprising: a printing module including a printhead and a motor for driving the web of record members past the printhead for printing; a communication interface for receiving a plurality of commands and data streams; a memory for storing an application program; an image generator responsive to printer data for generating record member image data to be coupled to the printhead for printing; a printer control language parser responsive to data in a predetermined printer control language for passing the data to the image generator; an interpreter that can be enabled or disabled by a command, the interpreter when enabled processing a stored application program to extract data from a received data stream and to construct therefrom one or more data packets in the predetermined printer control language to be sent to the parser; and an processor responsive to the receipt of an enable command to send subsequently received data streams to the interpreter and responsive to a disable command to send subsequently received data streams to the parser, bypassing the interpreter.