Method and apparatus for displaying a page with graphics information on a continuous synchronous raster output device

Claim 1

An apparatus for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said apparatus comprising: a) means for receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the image to be output; b) means for generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive; wherein said set of graphics orders comprises initialization orders, flow control orders, bitmap transfer orders, and scanline orders; c) means for generating a bitmap image from said graphics orders; d) means for outputting said bitmap image to said output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image; wherein said graphics orders generation means comprises: a) graphics interface subsystem means for receiving said interpreted high level graphics language commands and passing said received commands to at least one of a memory manager means, an immediate image data transfer means and an order construction means: b) said memory manager means for allocating and deallocating blocks of a memory in response to calls from said graphics interface subsystem means, said order construction means and an order compaction means: c) said immediate image data transfer means for drawing pixels in a user memory based upon pixel drawing commands passed by said graphics interface subsystem means: d) said order construction means for building stored orders based upon blit arguments passed by said graphics interface subsystem means: e) said order compaction means for combining multiple orders operating on the same destination pixel groups built by said order construction means.

Claim 2

An apparatus for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said apparatus comprising: a) means for receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the image to be output; b) means for generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive; wherein said set of graphics orders comprises initialization orders, flow control orders, bitmap transfer orders, and scanline orders; c) means for generating a bitmap image from said graphics orders; d) means for outputting said bitmap image to said output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image; wherein said graphics orders generation means comprises: a) graphics interface subsystem means for receiving said interpreted high level graphics language commands and passing said received commands to at least one of a memory manager means, an immediate image data transfer means and an order construction means: b) said memory manager means for allocating and deallocating blocks of a memory in response to calls from said graphics interface subsystem means, said order construction means and an order compaction means: c) said immediate image data transfer means for drawing pixels in a user memory based upon pixel drawing commands passed by said graphics interface subsystem means: d) said order construction means for building stored orders based upon blit arguments passed by said graphics interface subsystem means: e) said order compaction means for combining multiple orders operating on the same destination pixel groups built by said order construction means.

Claim 6

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of: a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the page image to be output; b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive such that: i) said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images which are delivered to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image; and ii) while the graphics information in a first one of said band is being output by said output device, the bitmap images for a second one of said bands are being generated; c) generating said bands of bitmap images from said graphic orders; d) outputting said generated bands of bitmap images to said output device; e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands: f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.

Claim 7

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of: a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the page image to be output; b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive such that: i) said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images which are delivered to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image; and ii) while the graphics information in a first one of said band is being output by said output device, the bitmap images for a second one of said bands are being generated; c) generating said bands of bitmap images from said graphic orders; d) outputting said generated bands of bitmap images to said output device; e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands: f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.

Claim 8

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of: a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the image to be output; b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive, wherein said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images for delivery to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image, wherein said set of graphics orders comprises initialization orders, flow control orders, bitmap transfer orders, and scanline orders; c) generating said bitmap image from said graphic orders; d) outputting said bitmap image to said output device; e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands: f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.

Claim 9

A method for creating an image which includes graphics information for display on a continuous synchronous raster output device, said method comprising the steps of: a) receiving and interpreting commands in a high level graphics language which define the image to be output; b) generating a set of graphics orders from the interpreted high level graphics language commands, wherein a graphics order is a graphics function represented as a low level primitive, wherein said graphics orders are processed into bands of bitmap images for delivery to the output device at a speed required by the output device, said graphics orders representing a complete page image and using an amount of memory which is less than the amount of memory which would be needed to store the complete page image as a bitmap image, wherein said set of graphics orders comprises initialization orders, flow control orders, bitmap transfer orders, and scanline orders; c) generating said bitmap image from said graphic orders; d) outputting said bitmap image to said output device; e) declaring a band fault if one of said graphics orders produces only a partial bitmap image within one of said bands: f) modifying said one graphics order for processing in a next of said bands so as to produce only a remaining part of said partial bitmap image.