Operating system based remote communication system

Abstract

A remote communication system provides a fast, efficient and user-friendly interface which does not suffer from the inefficiencies of the data transfer bottlenecks inherent in the prior art devices and methods. An operating system based remote communication system is achieved by providing a remote computer with a small, relatively simple terminal program which receives and interprets both data and command instructions from the host system. The present invention employs commands which are based on fundamental tasks that the operating system of the remote system may understand and implement, such as creating windows, buttons edit fields, listboxes and other operating system objects.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A remote communication system for communicating remotely with a host system of the type which runs a host program and which provides services to one or more users of the remote communication system, comprising: 
 means for receiving commands and data sent by the host system;    a central processing unit operatively connected to said receiving means, said central processing unit running an operating system and suitable for accepting the commands received from the host system, wherein the commands received comprise operating system objects which are based on fundamental tasks which may be performed by the operating system;    a terminal program running on said central processing unit, said terminal program suitable for interpreting and directing the commands received to the operating system for execution by the operating system; and    a display operatively connected to said central processing unit for displaying the results of the commands executed by the operating system.    
     
     
         2 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the commands received are sent by the host system in the form of resource files maintained by the host system.  
     
     
         3 . The remote communication system of  claim 2  further comprising a hard disk device suitable for storing said resource files.  
     
     
         4 . The remote communication system of  claim 3  wherein the operating system objects include dialog boxes, windows, listboxes and edit fields.  
     
     
         5 . The remote communication system of  claim 3  wherein the operating system objects comprise a button and the terminal program reports the triggering of the button to the host system.  
     
     
         6 . The remote communication system of  claim 3  wherein said resource files are stored on the hard disk drive of the remote communication system after being received for later retrieval and said resource files are only transmitted by the host system if the resource files are not available on said hard disk drive.  
     
     
         7 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the central processing unit has a random access memory suitable for storing the terminal program, the operating system and said commands received from the host system.  
     
     
         8 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the terminal program reports the successful completion of command to the host system.  
     
     
         9 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the host program is written using a script language.  
     
     
         10 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the terminal program is transmitted to the remote communication system if the host system determines that the terminal program is unavailable.  
     
     
         11 . The remote communication system of  claim 1  wherein the receiving means comprises a modem.  
     
     
         12 . A method of transferring a file from a sending system to a receiving system wherein the receiving system comprises a file storage device, said method comprising the following steps: 
 transmitting information to the receiving system regarding the file to be transferred, said information including a transmission number, the file name and the file size;    determining by the receiving system whether the storage device contains an existing file having the same file name and a smaller file size as the file to be transferred;    opening by the receiving system a file in the storage device under the file name and transmitting by the sending system the file to be transferred to the receiving system, when a file having the same file name and a smaller file size does not exist;    performing by the receiving system a cyclical redundancy check (CRC) on the existing file, notifying the sending system that a file having the same file name exists, transmitting the results of the CRC and the size of the existing file to the sending system, performing by the sending system the same CRC check on that portion of the file to be transferred identified by the size of the existing file, and comparing the results of the two CRC checks, when a file having the same file name and a smaller file size does exist;    opening by the receiving system the existing file and transmitting by the sending system the remaining portion of the file to be transferred to the receiving system when the results of the CRC checks match;    aborting the transfer when the results of the CRC checks do not match; and    maintaining by the receiving system the transmission number associated with file transfer, thereby allowing commands and additional files to be transmitted concurrently.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  further comprising the steps of: 
 maintaining by the sending system a list of blocks of the file to be transferred which have been transmitted; and  
 acknowledging by the receiving system the blocks of the file to be transferred which have been received, and removing by the sending system said blocks from the list in response to said acknowledgement.  
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising the steps of: 
 buffering by the receiving system blocks of data which are transmitted after one or more blocks containing an error have been transmitted;  
 retransmitting by the sending system the one or more blocks of data containing an error; and  
 combining the buffered blocks with the retransmitted blocks and adding the combined blocks to the open file in the storage device.  
 
     
     
         15 . A method of maintaining a list of items on a display of a remote communication system wherein the list of items is located at a host system and only a maximum number of items are to be displayed within a window on the display, said method comprising the following steps: 
 determining by the remote system if any items are needed to correctly display the viewable portion of the window;    requesting by the remote system items to correctly display the viewable portion of the window when items are needed;    limiting the number of requests to be satisfied to the maximum number of items to be displayed;    maintaining by the remote system items received by the host system, and displaying by the remote system the items to be displayed in the window.    
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising the steps of: 
 setting a timer by the remote system when a request for an item to correctly display the viewable portion of the window is made;  
 requesting by the remote system retransmission of the item when the timer expires.  
 
     
     
         17 . A remote communication system for communicating remotely with a host system of the type which runs a host program and which provider services to one or more users of the remote communication system, comprising: 
 means for receiving data sent by the host system, said data comprising executable code;    a central processing unit operatively connected to said receiving means, said central processing unit suitable for executing the code;    a terminal program running on said central processing unit, said terminal program suitable for interpreting and directing the executable code to the central processing unit for execution;    a display operatively connected to said central processing unit for displaying the results of the commands executed by the central processing unit.    
     
     
         18 . The remote communication system of  claim 1 , wherein said executable code is sent by the host system in the form of resource files maintained by the host system.  
     
     
         19 . The remote communication system of  claim 18  wherein said resource files are stored on the hard disk drive of the remote communication system after being received for later retrieval and said resource files are only transmitted by the host system if the resource files are not available on the hard disk drive.  
     
     
         20 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the central processing unit has a random access memory suitable for storing the terminal program, the operating system and executable code received from the host system.  
     
     
         21 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the executable code reports the successful completion of a command to the host system.  
     
     
         22 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the terminal program is transmitted to the remote communication system if the host system determines that terminal program is unavailable.  
     
     
         23 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the receiving means comprises a modem.  
     
     
         24 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the executable code is defined by a standardized scripted code which is independent of the operating system of the remote system.  
     
     
         25 . The remote communication system of  claim 24  wherein an interpreter executes the standardized scripted code.  
     
     
         26 . The remote communication system of  claim 17  wherein the executable code is translated by the terminal program before being executed by the central processing unit.