Patent Application: US-33785099-A

Abstract:
an operator of a printer may choose a maximum decomposition time for a page of a print job . each page in the print job must fully decompose before the maximum decomposition time is reached . if a page does not fully decompose before the maximum decomposition time is reached , the print job may be terminated . in addition , a notification may be generated advising the operator that a page of the print job did not fully compose before the maximum decomposition time was reached . the establishment of maximum decomposition times helps to ensure that a single print job does not monopolize a printer or other output device .

Description:
the illustrative embodiment of the present invention allows a user to select a maximum decomposition time that is permissible for a page of a print job . if any page in a print job exceeds the maximum decomposition time , an event may be triggered . for example , the print job may be terminated and / or notifications may be generated . the notifications may advise the user that one of the pages of the print job has exceeded the maximum decomposition time . the notifications may be email messages , facsimile messages , printed messages , pages or other varieties of communications . it should also be appreciated that events other than the termination of the print job or the generation of the notification may be triggered by a page in the print job exceeding the maximum decomposition time . the illustrative embodiment is implemented on a printer that provides a user with a user interface for selecting the maximum decomposition time . in some embodiments , the user may be able to select multiple maximum decomposition times . each decomposition time is associated with one or more scenarios , such as which paper tray is used to print , type of print job and the like . fig3 depicts a block diagram of the logical organization of printer 14 for use in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention . the printer includes a processor 40 for executing instructions . the processor 40 may be realized as a controller , or as a general purpose microprocessor . those skilled in the art will appreciate that a number of different types of commercially available processors may be used within the printer 14 . the printer 14 includes one or more paper trays 42 for holding paper on which output is to be printed by the printer 14 . the paper trays 42 may include but are not limited to a letter - size paper tray , a legal - size paper tray , an a4 - size paper tray , and an 11 × 17 paper tray . the printer 14 also includes an operator interface 44 that allows the operator of the printer to communicate with the printer . the operator interface 44 serves as the mechanism by which the operator selects a maximum decomposition time in the illustrative embodiment . the printer 14 includes storage 46 . the storage 46 may include both primary storage and secondary storage . moreover , those skilled in the art will appreciate that the storage 46 may be implemented using a number of different types of storage technologies , including but not limited to ram , rom , eerom , eprom , magnetic disks , optical disks , and removable media , such as floppy disks or cd - roms . the storage 46 holds instructions for realizing a timer 50 . these instructions are executed by the processor 40 when the timer 50 is active . the role of the timer 50 will be discussed in more detail below . a storage 46 also holds instructions for a comparator 52 that compares the decomposition time for each page of a print job with the maximum decomposition time . it is presumed that the comparator 52 maintains data regarding the maximum decomposition time chosen by an operator ( i . e . user ) and current decomposition time as calculated by the timer 50 . a notification module 54 is stored in the storage 46 to generate notifications , such as emails , facsimiles , printed output , pages or other types of application . the storage 46 additionally holds termination logic 56 for terminating a print job when instructed by the comparator 52 . the storage holds an interpreter 16 for interpreting a page description language , such as postscript , pjl or pcl . those skilled in the art will appreciate that the storage 46 may include multiple interpreters . those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the timer 50 , comparator 52 and notification module 54 may all be implemented as part of a common software package or as separate modules . fig4 is a flow chart illustrating how a maximum decomposition time is established and used in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention . initially a maximum decomposition time is established ( step 70 in fig4 ). in the illustrative embodiment , the maximum decomposition time is selected by an operator . the operator interface 44 is used to select such a maximum decomposition time . fig5 a shows a first example of an operator interface 44 that may be used to select a maximum decomposition time . an operator may select menu and options via pushbuttons 90 , 92 , 100 , 102 and 104 to obtain a screen 93 on a display 95 . the display 95 may be , for example , a liquid crystal display ( lcd ), such as commonly found with commercially available printers . the screen 93 includes text 88 that prompts the operator to choose a maximum decomposition time for a page . a text box 94 contains a current value for the maximum decomposition time . in the example shown in fig5 a , a value of “ 1 ” second is displayed in box 94 . the screen 93 also contains an up arrow 91 indicating that pushbutton 90 may be used to increment the value displayed in box 94 . similarly , the screen 93 contains a down arrow 97 indicating that pushbutton 92 may be used to decrement the value displayed in box 94 . each activation of pushbutton 92 increments the value by one second , whereas each activation of the pushbutton 92 decrements the value in box 94 by one second . the printer 14 may limit the values that are chosen such that there are minimum selectable values and maximum selectable values . fig5 b depicts an alternative interface in which the display 110 is more akin to a conventional computer screen and contains a cursor 120 . the display 110 prompts the operator to select the maximum decomposition time and includes a text box 114 that displays a current value for the maximum decomposition time . button controls 116 and 118 are displayed within the display 110 and may be activated by positioning the cursor 120 at the buttons and activating the pointing device ( such as by clicking a mouse button ) to increment or decrement the values . button 116 increments the value of the maximum decomposition time and button 118 decrements the value of the maximum decomposition time . those skilled in the art will appreciate that other types of interfaces may be used to select the maximum decomposition time . the interfaces shown in fig5 a and 5b are intended to be merely illustrative and not limiting of the present invention . further , programmatic interfaces may be provided to enable the operator to programmatically select the maximum decomposition time . still further , those skilled in the art will appreciate that the printer depicted in fig3 is intended to be merely illustrative . different components and additional components may be included as part of the printer 14 in practicing the present invention . after the maximum decomposition time has been established ( step 70 in fig4 ), the storage 46 holds a copy of the maximum decomposition time for use by the comparator 52 . subsequently , a print job is received at the printer 14 ( step 72 in fig4 ). the print job may include one or more pages , and each of the pages will be decomposed sequentially . thus , the printer 14 begins to decompose the next page in the print job using the interpreter 16 ( step 74 in fig4 ). the timer 50 monitors the decomposition time for the page ( step 76 in fig4 ). as used herein , “ decomposition time ” refers to the time it takes a page to decompose . the decomposition of the page entails interpreting an encoded representation of a page ( in a page description language ) to produce printed output . the comparator 52 determines whether the maximum decomposition time has been reached for the page ( see step 78 in fig4 ). if the maximum decomposition time has been reached and the page is not fully decomposed , additional steps must be taken . if , however , the page has already been fully decomposed before the maximum decomposition time is reached , the next page may be processed . specifically , the printer 14 checks whether there are any pages left to be processed on the current print job ( step 84 in fig4 ), if there are additional pages ( i . e . the processing is not “ done ”), the process repeats itself beginning at step 74 of fig4 . in instances wherein the maximum decomposition time has been reached ( see step 78 in fig4 ), the print job is terminated ( step 80 in fig5 ). the termination of the print job causes no more pages of the print job to be output on the printer 14 . the printer 14 contains termination logic 56 for generating such a termination . in the illustrative embodiment , one or more notifications are then generated to advise the operator that one of the pages did not fully decompose before the maximum decomposition time is reached ( step 82 in fig4 ). the notifications may take many different forms . as shown in fig6 the printer 14 may generate a facsimile message 130 for output on a facsimile machine 140 or a computer system that is capable of receiving facsimile messages . the facsimile message 130 advises the operator that the print job has failed due to one of the pages exceeding the maximum decomposition time . a notification may also be an email message 132 that is sent to a user computer 142 . furthermore , the notification may be simply a printed message 134 that is output by the printer 14 . still further , the notification may be a page 136 that is sent to a pager 144 . those skilled in the art will appreciate that other varieties of communications may be utilized to perform the notification . for example , video mail messages or voice mail messages may be forwarded to an operator to advise the operator of the termination of the print job . as mentioned above , more than one maximum decomposition time may be established by an operator . in some environments , it may make sense to establish multiple maximum decomposition times . each of the maximum decomposition times is associated with a - given scenario , where a scenario represents a particular printing situation . fig7 is a flow chart that depicts the steps that are utilized when multiple maximum decomposition times are used . initially , the maximum decomposition times are established for different scenarios ( step 150 in fig7 ). for instance , each paper tray may have a different maximum decomposition time ; thus , a printing scenario for each paper tray is established and has an associated maximum decomposition time . the print job is received at the printer 14 ( step 152 in fig7 ). based on how the print job is to be printed , it is determined what scenario is appropriate for the print job ( step 154 in fig7 ). for example , suppose that a print job is to be printed on paper tray 2 . paper tray 2 print jobs employ a specified maximum decomposition time . hence , the specified maximum decomposition time is used when printing the received print job using paper from paper tray 2 . those skilled in the art will also appreciate that different scenarios based upon characteristics of the print job load on the printer and the like may constitute separate scenarios with separate associated maximum decomposition time . the determined decomposition time is then applied when the print job is printed ( step 156 in fig7 ). the next steps performed are then like those described above relative to fig4 . the illustrative embodiment avoids the monopolization of printer 14 by any print job . hence , it is less likely that any print jobs will starve due to the monopolization of the printer . in addition , the illustrative embodiment increases the throughput of print jobs through the printer by ensuring that print jobs do not take an inordinate amount of time to print . while the present invention has been described with reference to an illustrative embodiment thereof , those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the intended scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims 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