Media processing device with multi-format support

1 . A method, comprising:

receiving a first document at a thermal printer;

determining the first document has a first format from a plurality of formats;

selecting, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from a plurality of interpreters, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing;

receiving a second document at the thermal printer;

determining the second document has a second format of the plurality of possible formats;

selecting, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing; and

printing the first document and the second document,

wherein the determining is based at least in part upon which of a plurality of ports of the thermal printer receives the first document and the second document, respectively.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first document and the second document are routed to respective ports by a computing device.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first document and the second document are routed to respective ports automatically.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first document and the second document are routed to respective ports based on a user input.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second interpreter is configured to render documents in more than one format of the plurality of formats.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein each interpreter of the plurality of interpreters is pre-initialized when the thermal printer is powered on.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein an interpreter of the plurality of interpreters is initialized upon receipt of data at a corresponding port of the plurality of ports.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining is based at least in part upon parsing metadata associated with the first document and the second document, respectively.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the metadata is contained within a header of a packet which contains at least a portion of the first document or the second document, respectively.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein a first port is provided for receiving data in a predetermined format, and a second port is provided for receiving data which requires parsing of metadata.

11 . A thermal printer, comprising:

memory storing a plurality of interpreters;

a communication interface; and

a processing device programmed to:

receive a first document from a host via the communication interface;

determine the first document has a first format from a plurality of possible formats;

select, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in memory, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing;

print the first document using the first interpreter;

receive a second document from the host via the communication interface;

determine the second document has a second format from the plurality of possible formats;

select, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in the memory, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing; and

print the second document using the second interpreter,

wherein the communication interface includes a plurality of ports, and the processing device is programmed to determine the first format and the second format based at least in part upon which of the plurality of ports of the communication interface receives the first document and the second document, respectively.

12 . The thermal printer of claim 11 , wherein the first document and the second document are received at respective ports of the plurality of ports based on routing specified by a host.

13 . The thermal printer of claim 11 , wherein information received at a port of the plurality of ports for the first document is configured to be routed to the first interpreter of the plurality of interpreters.

14 . The thermal printer of claim 13 , wherein each interpreter of the plurality of interpreters is pre-initialized when the thermal printer is powered on.

15 . The thermal printer of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is programmed to determine the first format and the second format based at least in part upon parsing metadata associated with the first document and the second document, respectively.

16 . The thermal printer of claim 15 , wherein the metadata is contained within a header of a packet which contains at least a portion of the first document or the second document, respectively.

17 . The thermal printer of claim 11 , wherein the thermal printer is portable.

18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

receive a first document from a host via a communication interface;

determine the first document has a first format from a plurality of possible formats;

select, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from a plurality of interpreters in memory, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing;

print the first document using the first interpreter;

receive a second document from the host via the communication interface;

determine the second document has a second format from the plurality of possible formats;

select, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in the memory, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing; and

print the second document using the second interpreter,

wherein the determining is based at least in part upon which of a plurality of ports of the thermal printer receives the first document and the second document, respectively.

19 . A thermal printer, comprising:

memory storing a plurality of interpreters;

a communication interface including a first port and a second port, the first port is provided for receiving data in a first format and the second port is provided for receiving data in a different format from a plurality of possible formats; and

a processing device programmed to:

receive a first document from a host via the first port of the communication interface;

determine the first document has the first format from a plurality of possible formats in response to receiving the first document via the first port;

select, based upon the first format, a first interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in memory, the first interpreter configured to render the first document for printing;

print the first document using the first interpreter;

receive a second document from the host via the second port of the communication interface;

parse metadata of the second document to determine which of the plurality of possible formats corresponds to the second document in response to receiving the second document via the second port;

determine the second document has a second format from the plurality of possible formats based on the metadata of the second document;

select, based upon the second format, a second interpreter from the plurality of interpreters in the memory, the second interpreter configured to render the second document for printing; and

print the second document using the second interpreter.