Method for optimizing printer response time for a key to print operation

摘要

A method for optimizing the printer operation in a word processing system when the data rate varies from character to character. A circular buffering scheme accepts blocks of data from an application task of a word processor as it is keyed. Data is stored in the circular buffer pool, and a background print task asynchronously removes data from the pool and reblocks it before sending the data to the printer. Data from one or more application blocks is reblocked in FIFO order until the optimum number of commands is reached or all application data is processed. All parameters are table-driven, so that the method of optimizing the printer operation is expandable as new types of printers are added to the word processing system.