Thin layer protocol TM for printer management

A Thin Layer Protocol TM adds three new data stream commands-the WOCC, WOC and END commands-to the Intelligent Printer Data Stream TM ("IPDS TM ") structured page description language. The WOCC command creates a container for encapsulating a foreign print object, such as a PostScript TM or PCL TM command stream The container includes information identifying the type of object it contains. The WOC command provides the foreign print object data for the container and includes information defining the length of the object. The END command unambiguously locates the end of the container to prevent confusion of encapsulated binary data with escape sequences. Long objects are partitioned using separate WOC commands, each providing the length of its partition. The object type information enables the printer to easily invoke an appropriate language interpreter. Alternatively, the printer may use the object type and object length information to skip over an object which it does not recognize.