Printing Control Program With Dual-Path Job Status Acquisition
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Solution Overview
Problem
General-purpose printer drivers fail to provide a comprehensive status notification in printing processing, as they do not support all statuses that can be notified by vendor-specific drivers, leading to insufficient information for users.
Innovation Solution
A printing control program that executes first acquisition processing via a general-purpose printer driver to obtain a first status, followed by second acquisition processing directly from the printer to obtain additional, unsupported statuses, and notifies users through a combined status display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a general-purpose printer driver is used, then ease of operation is improved, but status notification completeness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A status acquisition program is introduced as an intermediary component between the general-purpose printer driver and the user interface. This program acquires comprehensive status information from the printer directly (bypassing the driver's limited status notification) and combines it with driver-provided status information, then presents unified status notifications to the user. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining driver simplicity while adding comprehensive status capability through the intermediary layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The status acquisition process is segmented into multiple independent acquisition paths: one through the general-purpose printer driver and another directly from the printer. Each path acquires specific status information, and the results are merged. This segmentation allows the system to leverage the simplicity of general-purpose drivers while supplementing their insufficient status information with direct printer queries, thus resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and information completeness.
2Loss of information
If a vendor-specific printer driver is used, then status notification completeness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring users to install and configure complex vendor-specific drivers, the status acquisition program acts as an intermediary that simplifies the interface. The program handles the complexity of direct printer communication and status acquisition, while presenting a simple unified status notification interface to users. This maintains comprehensive status information without exposing users to vendor-specific driver complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The status acquisition program provides universal functionality by working with any printer connected to the system, regardless of whether a general-purpose or vendor-specific driver is used. It universally acquires status information from the printer and combines it with driver-provided information, presenting a consistent interface. This universality allows comprehensive status notification without requiring users to choose complex vendor-specific drivers.
3Loss of information
If direct printer status acquisition is implemented, then status notification completeness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The status acquisition program serves as an intermediary layer that implements direct printer status acquisition without exposing the complexity to users or the main application. The program handles the low-level printer communication and status parsing internally, then presents simplified combined status information through the existing driver framework. This allows comprehensive status information to be obtained directly from the printer while maintaining system simplicity through the intermediary abstraction layer.
Data Source
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AI summary
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a printing control program, the printing control program causing a computer to execute first acquisition processing, second acquisition processing, and notification processing. In the first acquisition processing, a first status concerning a print job of a printer is acquired together with an instruction of status display from a general-purpose printer driver. In the second acquisition processing, a second status concerning the print job different from the first status is acquired from the printer not via the general-purpose printer driver. In the notification processing, a status concerning the print job of the printer is notified to a user based on the first status and the second status.