METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A PRINTER HAVING INTERNAL QUEUE JOB MANAGEMENT

An improved printing system having a host computer and a printer is provided in which the printer has a memory of sufficient size capable of temporarily storing multiple print jobs. The host computer can be utilized by a user or a Network Administrator to "view" the contents of a print queue within the printer, in which the queue holds one or more print jobs as these print jobs await printing. The host can inform the printer when a particular print job in the queue is to be deleted or undeleted. Deleted jobs are effectively removed from the queue and are not printed; however, such deleted jobs can be reinstated (or "undeleted") during the time interval between the delete command being received at the printer and when this job would have become the immediate subject for being interpreted, and the particular print job (which really never lost its place in the queue) returns to the queue and has its data sent to the interpreter when its turn to be dispatched occurs, and finally becomes printed. The various stages of a print job migrating through the printer are used to inform the user/Network Administrator at the host as to the status of the entire print queue, upon request by the user/Network Administrator. The list of current jobs in the printer's queue and the "location" of each of these print jobs is displayed on the monitor at the host in a form that identifies the job name and the status of each job. In one preferred embodiment, a "list box" of the host's display monitor can present up to twenty-five (25) current jobs in the order that they will be operated on by the printer.