Patent ID: 6029191
Filing Date: 2000-02-22
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An application sharing system in which a plurality of terminals having application programs of the same sort are interconnected via a network having a plurality of communication channels so that said terminals are communicable with each other, wherein the application program of each of said terminals comprises:a primary processing part comprising a user input processing part for producing, in response to a user input supplied to the application program of said each of said terminals, a user message representative of a content of said user input and a message processing part for carrying out, in response to an incoming message, an operation based on said incoming message;a mode registration part for holding whether an operation mode of the application program of said each of said terminals is a sole mode or a share mode and for holding, when said operation mode of the application program of said each of said terminals is said share mode, channel information specifying one of said communication channels as a specified channel;message transfer means for carrying out, when said sole mode is set in said mode registration part, a transferring operation of transferring said user message to said message processing part as said incoming message, said message transfer means carrying out, when said share mode is set in said mode registration part, the transferring operation of transferring said user message to said message processing part as said incoming message, another transferring operation of transferring said user message to the application program of a sharing partner of said terminals by the use of said specified channel, and still another transferring operation of transferring to said message processing part as said incoming message another user message transferred from the application program of said sharing partner by the use of said specified channel; andstart condition control means supplied with a share-mode start request with said channel information for setting said share mode and said channel information in said mode registration part and for making said message transfer part communicate with the application program of said sharing partner by the use of said specified channel to perform a matching operation of matching internal states of the primary processing parts of the application programs of said each of said terminals and of said sharing partner.