Patent ID: 7669196

Claim:
A data processing system comprising a data generating device and a data outputting device, wherein the data generating device comprises: a commanding section for generating a command for generating data; a first storage section for storing a generation program for causing a computer to generate data; a data generating section for generating data in accordance with the generation program executed by the computer; a data transmitting section for transmitting the generated data; and a generation program updating section for updating a version of the generation program from a current version to a next version, and the data outputting device comprises: a receiving section for receiving data from the data generating devices, the receiving section being connected to one or more data generating devices through a data transferring section; a data accumulating section for accumulating data received at the receiving section; a second storage section for storing an output program for causing a computer to execute an outputting process that corresponds to a data generation process of the generation program; an outputting section for processing and outputting data in the data accumulating section in accordance with the output program executed by the computer; an output program updating section for updating the version of the output program from a current version to a next version; a compatibility determining section for determining the compatibility between the next-version output program and data in the data accumulating section before the output program is updated; and a controlling section for determining an operation to perform on data in the data accumulating section based on the result of the determination by the compatibility determining section, wherein the output program updating section acquires supported function information of the next-version output program which is provided along with the program, the compatibility determining section compares the supported function information acquired by the output program updating section with supported function information of the current version output program which has been retained since the updating to the current version output program and, if supported functions of the current version output prow-ram include a function which is not supported by the next-version output program, all the data accumulated in the data accumulating section is processed.