Taming complexity of industrial printing systems using a constraint-based DSL

An industrial experience report

Journal Article (2023)
Author(s)

J. Denkers (TU Delft - Programming Languages)

Marvin Brunner (Canon Production Printing)

Louis van Gool (Canon Production Printing)

Jurgen J. Vinju (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Eindhoven University of Technology)

Andy Zaidman (TU Delft - Software Engineering)

E Visser (TU Delft - Programming Languages)

Research Group
Programming Languages
Copyright
© 2023 J. Denkers, Marvin Brunner, Louis van Gool, Jurgen J. Vinju, A.E. Zaidman, Eelco Visser
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.3239
More Info
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Publication Year
2023
Language
English
Copyright
© 2023 J. Denkers, Marvin Brunner, Louis van Gool, Jurgen J. Vinju, A.E. Zaidman, Eelco Visser
Research Group
Programming Languages
Issue number
10
Volume number
53
Pages (from-to)
2026-2064
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

Flexible printing systems are highly complex systems that consist of printers, that print individual sheets of paper, and finishing equipment, that processes sheets after printing, for example, assembling a book. Integrating finishing equipment with printers involves the development of control software that configures the devices, taking hardware constraints into account. This control software is highly complex to realize due to (1) the intertwined nature of printing and finishing, (2) the large variety of print products and production options for a given product, and (3) the large range of finishers produced by different vendors. We have developed a domain-specific language called CSX that offers an interface to constraint solving specific to the printing domain. We use it to model printing and finishing devices and to automatically derive constraint solver-based environments for automatic configuration. We evaluate CSX on its coverage of the printing domain in an industrial context, and we report on lessons learned on using a constraint-based DSL in an industrial context.