1. A printer comprising: a memory for storing an application program; a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to perform the steps comprising: receiving a command to enable or disable an interpreter task; determining if the interpreter task has been enabled or disabled; receiving a data stream; sending the data stream to the interpreter task if enabled to construct therefrom one or more data packets in a predetermined printer control language to be sent to one or more tasks for printing; sending the data stream directly to an extensible markup language task if the interpreter is disabled; and executing the extensible markup language task, bypassing the interpreter.