Global printing system and method of using same

Abstract

A system and method for parsing data formatted in a plurality of encoding schemes at a printer is provided. The method comprises receiving data from at least one host computer at the printer, wherein at least a portion of the data is encoded in a plurality of encoding schemes. The method also includes determining a parser state of the data based on a plurality of characters and/or at least one printer control command associated with the plurality of encoding schemes.

1 . A method for formatting bar codes that are encoding scheme independent, the method comprising:
 receiving data from at least one host computer at the printer, wherein at least a portion of the data is encoded in at least one encoding scheme;   determining whether the data comprises a Unicode encoding scheme;   converting the data into at least a first predetermined encoding scheme; and   formatting at least one bar code using the at least first predetermined encoding scheme.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising converting the first predetermined encoding scheme into a second predetermined encoding scheme. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein formatting comprises formatting the at least one bar code using the second predetermined encoding scheme. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein converting comprises converting the data into a UTF-8 encoding scheme. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising determining whether a shift-JIS data table is present. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising converting the UTF-8 encoding scheme into a shift-JIS encoding scheme if a shift-JIS data table is present. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein formatting comprises formatting at least one QR barcode. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least a first portion of the data is encoded in an ASCII transparent encoding scheme and wherein at least a second portion of the data is encoded in a non-ASCII transparent encoding scheme. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein if the data comprises a Unicode encoding scheme, converting the data into at least a first predetermined encoding scheme comprises:
 maintaining a buffer of the received data, the received data comprising a plurality of characters and at least one printer control command associated with each of the ASCII transparent encoding scheme and the non-ASCII transparent encoding scheme;   maintaining a parser state, an endianness state, and an ASCII transparent type state, wherein the parser state defines parsed data as ASCII transparent or non-ASCII transparent, wherein the endianness state defines the endianness of most recently parsed non-ASCII transparent data, and wherein the ASCII transparent type state defines the ASCII transparent encoding scheme of most recently parsed ASCII transparent data; and   parsing the data based on at least one of the plurality of characters and at least one printer control command and based on the parser state, the endianness state, and the ASCII transparent type state.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein receiving data comprises receiving data that is encoded in a UTF-16 encoding scheme and an ASCII transparent encoding scheme. 
     
     
         11 . A method for formatting a label that is encoding scheme independent, the method comprising:
 receiving data from at least one host computer at the printer, wherein at least a portion of the data is encoded in at least one encoding scheme;   determining whether the data comprises a Unicode encoding scheme;   converting the data into at least a first predetermined encoding scheme; and   formatting at least one label using the at least first predetermined encoding scheme.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the label comprises a bar code. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising converting the first predetermined encoding scheme into a second predetermined encoding scheme. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the label comprises a bar code, and wherein formatting comprises formatting the at least one bar code using the second predetermined encoding scheme. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein converting comprises converting the data into a UTF-8 encoding scheme. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising determining whether a shift-JIS data table is present. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising converting the UTF-8 encoding scheme into a shift-JIS encoding scheme if a shift-JIS data table is present. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the label comprises a bar code, and wherein formatting comprises formatting at least one QR barcode. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein at least a first portion of the data is encoded in an ASCII transparent encoding scheme and wherein at least a second portion of the data is encoded in a non-ASCII transparent encoding scheme. 
     
     
         20 . A printer for printing a label that is encoding scheme independent, the printer comprising:
 a receiving component configured to receive data from at least one host computer, wherein at least a portion of the data is encoded in at least one encoding scheme; and   a parser component configured to:
 determine whether the data comprises a Unicode encoding scheme; 
 convert the data into at least a first predetermined encoding scheme; and 
 format at least one label using the at least first predetermined encoding scheme. 
   
     
     
         21 . The printer of  claim 20 , further comprising a rendering component configured to render the data on the label. 
     
     
         22 . The printer of  claim 21 , wherein the rendering component is configured to render the data in at least one of a plurality of languages and a plurality of orientations encoded in a plurality of encoding schemes on the label. 
     
     
         23 . The printer of  claim 21 , wherein the rendering component is configured to render at least one of contextual data, diacritic data, bi-directional data, serialized data, word wrapped data, and rotated data encoded in a plurality of encoding schemes on the label. 
     
     
         24 . A method for analyzing serialized data comprising:
 receiving serialized data from at least one host computer at the printer, wherein at least a portion of the serialized data is encoded in at least one encoding scheme;   converting the data into a first encoding scheme; and   parsing the converted data into an array of combining semantic clusters based on a plurality of rules, each combining semantic cluster comprising a plurality of code points.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein converting comprises converting serialized data encoded in a Unicode encoding scheme into a UTF-8 encoding scheme. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein parsing comprises parsing the data into an array of combining semantic clusters based on a plurality of boundary properties and boundary rules. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein parsing comprises parsing the converted data into an array of combining semantic clusters each comprising non-spacing combining code points.