Dynamic plug and play interface for output device

摘要

A plug and play interface for output device (500) used in a distributed computer network (100) includes a front end module (422) which submits print jobs to a document processor module (424). The document processor module (424) processes the print jobs and forwards the print jobs to a back end module (426), which directs the print jobs to the appropriate output devices. The plug and play interface allows for the addition of various output devices connected by various protocols by simply bringing into the back end a shared library corresponding to the new output device. Thus, various output devices may be used without requiring any revision of or stopping the system.