User interface, operating system and architecture

Abstract

Disclosed are a novel user interface, operating system, software language and architecture.

1 . A method for enabling the creation and management of a platform-independent application whose appearance and functionality is consistently propagated across heterogeneous device types for cross-device interoperability, replicability, and compatibility of applications and data with a consistent user experience, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the platform-independent data superstructure storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application;   instantiating, by a superstructure-dedicated operating system, the application in the device in accordance with the received superstructure;   receiving, by the platform-independent data superstructure, from a device-native operating system via communication with the superstructure-dedicated operating system, at least one application event generated by the instantiated application and representative of an update to the application state of the application;   updating, by the platform-independent data superstructure, information in a first segment of the superstructure associated with the at least one application event, responsive to receiving the least one application event and independent of an update to a second segment in the superstructure; and   updating, in accordance with the superstructure segment update, the application state in the device.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent, hierarchical information superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application and storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving, by the device, a message containing a data object of a defined type operable to instantiate the application in the device; and instantiating the application in the device in accordance with the data object in the received message.   
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the instantiating of the application occurs substantially when the application is invoked. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the instantiating of the application occurs at an application-provisioning time prior to application run-time. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 identifying, by a provisioning application on a first device within an operating environment on the first device, a first superstructure for generating a new application superstructure to be expressed on a second device;   generating, by the provisioning application, a data object for expressing the new application superstructure on the second device;   transmitting, to the second device, the data object; and   creating, by the second device, the new application superstructure, responsive to receiving the data object.   
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 identifying, by a provisioning application on a first device within an operating environment on the first device, a predefined data object that expresses a new application superstructure for a second device;   transmitting, to the second device, the predefined data object; and   creating, by the second device, the new application superstructure, responsive to receiving the data object.   
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of
 maintaining by a first device, an application accepting input from a user to create an interactive message;   translating, by the first application, a portion of the message into a new superstructure-based application operable to display the message or cause interactive operations within the message; and   transmitting, by the first application, the superstructure of the new application to a second device.   
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising the step of converting the superstructure into a temporary form that is transmitted, received, and decoded back into an original form on the receiving device; and
 maintaining, by the second device, an application that receives the superstructure in its temporary form, decodes it, and causes the message-bearing superstructure to operate, thereby rendering the message.   
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving, by the device, for a given state of a selected application, a platform-independent data superstructure having a substantially invariant organization, regardless of the device, platform or device-native operating system environment in which the associated application is instantiated, so as to maintain a consistent application appearance and behavior across heterogeneous devices, platforms or device-native operating system environments. 
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining a plurality of rules of appearance and behavior of the application which are substantially invariant across heterogeneous devices, platforms or device-native operating system environments. 
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving, by the device, substantially identical application source code in the platform-independent data superstructure as source code used across heterogeneous devices, platforms or device-native operating system environments. 
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the step of initiating the application further comprises initiating, by the superstructure-dedicated operating system, an application including a user interface having a substantially identical appearance and behavior across heterogeneous devices, platforms or device-native operating system environments. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the step of updating information in the segment of the superstructure further comprises the steps if:
 receiving data representative of the at least one application event in the superstructure-dedicated OS,   applying to the superstructure, in response to the received data, a data object, thereby modifying the superstructure.   
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of:
 generating, by the superstructure-dedicated operating system a modification data object representative of a modification applied to the superstructure,   translating the modification data object into a form suitable for processing by the device-native OS,   receiving in the device-native OS the translated modification data object, and   processing the translated modification data object in the application to update the application.   
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising expressing within the superstructure a mechanism for generating the modification data object. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 14  wherein modifying the superstructure includes transmitting a portion of the superstructure to a processor remote from the device, modifying the transmitted portion, and then returning the modified portion or a new set of operations to update the superstructure. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 14  wherein modifying the superstructure includes using device-native code to implement an interface to modify the superstructure. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the application of changes to the superstructure is implemented by activating program instructions within the superstructure. 
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein further comprising the step of:
 storing, by an application server in communication with the device, a copy of the platform-independent data superstructure, the superstructure including at least one data object operable to instantiate applications on the device; and   transmitting applications from the application server to the device by replicating data objects in the superstructure to the remote device, so as to enable instantiation of new data objects and applications from the server into the remote device.   
   
   
       21 . A method for enabling the creation and management of a platform-independent application whose appearance and functionality is consistently propagated across heterogeneous device types for cross-device interoperability, replicability, and compatibility of applications and data with a consistent user experience, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application;   instantiating, by a superstructure-dedicated operating system, the application in the device in accordance with the received platform-independent data superstructure;   transmitting, to the superstructure-dedicated operating system, by a device-native operating system, at least one application event generated by the instantiated application and representative of an update to the application state of the application;   transmitting by the superstructure-dedicated operating system, to a remote server, a segment of the superstructure associated with the at least one application event;   receiving, from the server, a modified version of the segment of the superstructure generated responsive to the received segment of the superstructure for replacement of the existing version of the segment of the superstructure, thus updating the segment of the superstructure, and   instructing, by the superstructure-dedicated OS, the device-native OS to update the application state in response to the updated sediment of the superstructure.   
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 21  wherein the network further comprises a plurality of heterogeneous devices, communications channels and communications providers servicing the communications channels, and wherein the superstructure defines a given application to have an appearance and behavior that can be propagated with consistency across heterogeneous devices, communications channels and communications providers. 
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising:
 modifying the superstructure in a substantially device-independent manner, and   expressing a real-time image of an application running in a first device across the network from the first device to a second device to yield a viable instantiation of the application in the second device, regardless of device environment.   
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 21  wherein:
 expressing, by the superstructure, the running state and functionality of an application operating in a first device, and   instantiating the application on a second device, without loss of state or functionality, by expressing the superstructure on the second device.   
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising validating the superstructure upon or after modification. 
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising validating the superstructure after modifying the superstructure, the validation including validation of data updated by processing of an event, so that the modified superstructure cannot express a harmful change to the device-native OS. 
   
   
       27 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising producing, by an application defined by the superstructure, external changes only by invoking operations that operate on the superstructure. 
   
   
       28 . The method of  claim 1  further including providing an interface between an application and a system service, wherein the interface is defined by interaction between the superstructure and the superstructure-dedicated OS. 
   
   
       29 . The method of  claims 1  or  21  further comprising:
 expressing, by an information processing language adapted to interface with the superstructure, a set of transformations within the superstructure, the information processing language being expressible entirely within the superstructure and capable of expressing a set of transformations within the superstructure, and   modifying, by the information processing language, data only within the superstructure, so that: applications utilizing the language cannot affect the state of other applications or   operate outside a bounded application container to affect an underlying device platform.   
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the superstructure can contain stylesheets for defining selected application or presentation characteristics. 
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 30  further comprising configuring stylesheets on a per-device basis. 
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 30  further comprising configuring stylesheets on a per-group-of-devices basis. 
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 30  further comprising expressing stylesheets within the superstructure, independent of device-specific limitations. 
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 30  further comprising selecting a stylesheet at runtime. 
   
   
       35 . The method of any of  claim 1  further comprising the step of transmitting an application defined by the superstructure via a peer-to-peer transaction from a first device in which the application is instantiated, to a second device for instantiation in the second device. 
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 converting at least a portion of the superstructure into a device-portable form, independent of the present state of the application; and   reconstructing the original superstructure portion, on the same or different device context, using the device portable form, without loss of state.   
   
   
       37 . The method of  claim 36  wherein the reconstructing includes utilizing a new device-specific stylesheet. 
   
   
       38 . A system for enabling the creation and management of a platform-independent application whose appearance and functionality is consistently propagated across heterogeneous device types for cross-device interoperability, replicability, and compatibility of applications and data with a consistent users experience, comprising:
 a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application and storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application;   at least one application event generated by the application and representative of an application state;   a superstructure-dedicated operating system in communication with a device-native operating system and instantiating the application in the device in accordance with the superstructure and updating information in a segment of the superstructure associated with the at least one application events responsive to receiving the at least one application event and independent of an update to a second segment in the superstructure.   
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 36  further comprising:
 using the device-portable form as an intermediate or permanent storage format for recording data within the superstructure.   
   
   
       40 . The method of any of  claims 1  or  21  wherein the superstructure is organized into objects and classes. 
   
   
       41 . The system of  claim 38  wherein the platform-independent data superstructure further comprises at least one data structure that may be interpolated when the device-native operating system requests data from the platform-independent data superstructure. 
   
   
       42 . The method of  claim 3  wherein a first device can transmit to a second device a message containing an application event item, causing the second device to place the application event item into a processing queue of the second device. 
   
   
       43 . The method of  claim 20  wherein application logic can be distributed across the network by obtaining a portion of the logic from the remote device and transmitting it in a hierarchical form to the server without the necessity of adapting code therefor. 
   
   
       44 . The method of  claim 20  further comprising providing updates to an application's state from the server to a remote device, by defining a minimal change set to the application's state and transferring it across the network from the server to the remote device, without the necessity of adapting code therefor. 
   
   
       45 . The method of  claims 1  further comprising incorporating media assets into the superstructure, for reference by executing applications. 
   
   
       46 . The method of  claims 1  further comprising incorporating by reference media assets outside the superstructure, for reference by executing applications. 
   
   
       47 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving further comprises receiving, by a wireless messaging device operable to communicate with a network serviced by a communications carrier, the platform-independent data superstructure enabling the creation, modification, and management of platform-independent user interfaces and associated display elements for an application having an appearance and behavior propagated with consistency across a network, of heterogeneous platforms and communications carrier protocols, the platform-independent data superstructure defining a user interface, maintaining a display state of the user interface and storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       48 . The method of  claim 47  further comprising the step of
 updating, in accordance with a superstructure segment update, the application state and the user interface state on the wireless messaging device.   
   
   
       49 . (canceled) 
   
   
       50 . The method of  claims 47  further comprising the step of updating, in response to generated application events, a first segment of the superstructure associated with the application events independent of an update to a second segment in the superstructure, the application events including associated user interface events. 
   
   
       51 . (canceled) 
   
   
       52 . The method of  claims 47  wherein the application includes a user interface, and wherein the user interface has a substantially identical appearance and behavior across heterogeneous devices, platforms or device-native operating system environments. 
   
   
       53 - 69 . (canceled) 
   
   
       70 . The method of  claim 47  further comprising the step of requesting, by at least one application event, a modification to the user interface. 
   
   
       71 . The method of  claim 47  further comprising the step of requesting, by the at least one application event, access to at least one template element stored in a library of platform-independent user interface templates provided by the platform-independent data superstructure. 
   
   
       72 . The method of  claim 71 , further comprising the step of requesting, by the at least one application event, at least one of an addition, subtraction, replacement or other modification, to the at least one template element stored in a library of platform-independent user interface templates. 
   
   
       73 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising the step of requesting, by the at least one application event, an addition of user-defined content into the user interface. 
   
   
       74 . (canceled) 
   
   
       75 . The method of  claim 71  further comprising the step of enabling the creation of templates at a remote processor for subsequent representation in the superstructure and instantiation in the wireless device. 
   
   
       76 . The method of  claim 75  wherein the remote processor is a personal computer. 
   
   
       77 . The method of  claim 47 , further comprising configuring the user interface to respond to controls adapted to be actuated by a user's thumbs. 
   
   
       78 . The method of  claim 47  further comprising configuring the user interface to provide visual, sonic, tactile or other human-perceptible indications in response to commands entered by a user, or other application events. 
   
   
       79 . The method of  claim 47  further comprising configuring the user interface to enable a user to view, generate, send and manage messages. 
   
   
       80 . The method of  claim 79  further comprising configuring the user interface to enable a user to generate messages containing any of text, images, sound, or other media content. 
   
   
       81 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of
 executing, by the device, the application in accordance with the received superstructure;   receiving, by the device, via a wireless communications channel accessible by a superstructure-based application environment, an application update, the application update including a data object operable to update a first segment of a platform-independent data superstructure in the superstructure-based application environment, independent of in update to a second segment in the platform-independent data superstructure; and   receiving, by the device, a command to update the application in accordance with the application update.   
   
   
       82 . The method of  claim 81  further comprising receiving, by a plurality of devices, a broadcasted application update and command to update an application. 
   
   
       83 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of:
 transmitting, by the device, to a plurality of devices in a network, via a wireless communications channel, at least one update;   transmitting, by the device, to the plurality of devices in the network, a command to update, in the plurality of devices, an executing application in accordance with received update.   
   
   
       84 . The method of  claim 83  wherein the step of transmitting the at least one update further comprises transmitting, by the device, to a plurality of devices in the network, via wireless communications channel, at least one update to a state of an executing application. 
   
   
       85 . The method of any of  claims 82 ,  83  or  84  further comprising: ensuring that each device is in a consistent, known state at the time of broadcasting and that the update remains whole and complete. 
   
   
       86 . The method of any of  claims 82 ,  83  or  84  further comprising: broadcasting, in an all-or-nothing manner, only complete segments of application update. 
   
   
       87 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 using an internal representation of the superstructure to store private data relating to requests from the application or the state or data type of a superstructure node, wherein the private data is not serialized when the application is paused, halted or migrated, and is stored in a manner conveniently accessible at application runtime, such that this non-conversational data is coherently recoverable so long as the private data can be re-established upon de-serialization, based on public data that has been maintained in the superstructure.   
   
   
       88 . (canceled) 
   
   
       89 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 instantiating the superstructure in the device.   
   
   
       90 . (canceled) 
   
   
       91 . A system for enabling the creation and management of a platform-independent application whose appearance and functionality is consistently propagated across heterogeneous device types for cross-device interoperability, replicability, and compatibility of applications and data with a consistent user experience, comprising:
 means for receiving, by a device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the platform-independent data superstructure storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application;   means for instantiating, by a superstructure-dedicated operating system, the superstructure,   means for receiving, by the platform-independent data superstructure, from a device-native operating system via communication with the superstructure-dedicated operating system, at least one application event generated by the instantiated application and representative of an update to the application state of the application;   means for updating, by the platform-independent data superstructure, information in a first segment of the superstructure associated with the at least one application event, responsive to receiving the at least one application event and independent of an update to a second segment in the superstructure; and   means for updating, in accordance with the superstructure segment update, the application state in the device.   
   
   
       92 . The system of  claim 91 , wherein the means for receiving the platform-independent data superstructure further comprises
 means for receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the platform-independent data superstructure storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application, and comprising a hierarchical information structure.   
   
   
       93 . The system of  claim 91  further comprising
 means for instantiating the application in the device in accordance with the superstructure.   
   
   
       94 . The system of  claim 91  wherein the means for receiving further comprises means for receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the platform-independent data superstructure storing an application state, program code and internal logic of the application, and comprising an XML information superstructure. 
   
   
       95 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent XML information superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure storing state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       96 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure serializable in whole or in part at any time and storing state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       97 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of encapsulating, by the platform-independent data superstructure, program code defining appearance and behavior of the application. 
   
   
       98 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure comprising at least one data structure that may be interpolated when the device-native operating system requests data from the platform-independent data superstructure. 
   
   
       99 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent XML information superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure storing state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       100 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent hierarchical information superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure storing state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       101 . The method of  claim 21  further comprising the step of encapsulating, by the platform-independent data superstructure, program code defining appearance and behavior of the application. 
   
   
       102 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure defining the appearance and behavior of an application, the superstructure serializable in whole or in part at any time and storing state, program code and internal logic of the application. 
   
   
       103 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the step of receiving the superstructure further comprises receiving, by the device, a platform-independent data superstructure comprising at least one data structure that may be interpolated when the device-native operating system requests data from the platform-independent data superstructure. 
   
   
       104 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the platform-independent data superstructure further comprises a platform-independent XML information superstructure. 
   
   
       105 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the platform-independent data superstructure further comprises a platform-independent hierarchical information superstructure. 
   
   
       106 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the platform-independent data superstructure encapsulates program code defining appearance and behavior of the application. 
   
   
       107 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the platform-independent data superstructure is serializable in whole or in part at any time. 
   
   
       108 . The system of  claim 91 , wherein the means for receiving further comprises means for receiving, by a device, a platform-independent XML information superstructure.