Patent ID: 8745594

Claim:
A method for sequencing the execution of a number of p-segments by a computer processor, the number being an integer greater that zero and referred to as N, each p-segment being a sequence of one or more statements executable by the processor, each p-segment having a unique identifier, the p-segments being stored in a memory accessible by the computer processor, the p-segments being part of a manipulation program or being called from the manipulation program, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a flow sequencing program comprising a plurality of f-segments, each f-segment being associated with one or more of the N unique identifiers such that each unique identifier is associated with exactly one f-segment; (b) configuring the manipulation program to cause control to be first passed to a designated first p-segment upon execution of the manipulation program; (c) configuring the manipulation program so that after the completion of execution of each p-segment, control is passed to the f-segment associated with the unique identifier associated with the completed p-segment and at least one variable identifier and value of the variable computed by the completed p-segment is passed to the f-segment; wherein each f-segment is configured either to cause execution of the manipulation program to terminate, or to cause control to be passed to one of the p-segments, and wherein a plurality of the p-segments comprise at least two statements, and wherein the flow of control between p-segments is not specified in the manipulation program, and wherein at least one of the f-segments comprises an acceptance portion and an interaction portion, the acceptance portion being executed before the interaction portion, the acceptance portion comprising at least one statement to verify that the value of the variable corresponding to the at least one variable identifier is within a particular range or is equal to a particular value, and if the value of the variable is not within the particular range or the value of the variable is not equal to the particular value, as the case may be, the f-segment causes execution of the manipulation program to be terminated.