Generic assembly trees providing job control and mix and match of modules

摘要

Described herein is an electronic image processing apparatus which includes a controller and a plurality of resources in an arbitrary configuration. Each resource provides an associated processor storing data related to operational capabilities of the associated resource. The controller is adapted to dynamically configure the image processing apparatus to operate in accordance with the operational capabilities of each processor by defining job requirements as a combination of images defining a set of sheets and specifying compilations of sheets. The configuration of machine modules for effecting the job requirements is represented by a directed graph data structure in which each node of the graph represents a machine module. This enables arbitrary configurations of machine modules to be expressed using modules with merges, forks, parallel paths etc. <IMAGE>