Patent ID: 8095926

Claim:
A method for an installation of a first program component on a processing unit, comprising: obtaining a first list assigned to the first program component, the first list including at least one version number of a second program component that is already installed on the processor unit, wherein a particular version number is included in the first list only if a version of the second program component having the particular version number is compatible with a current version of the first program component; obtaining a second list assigned to the second program component, the second list including at least one version number of the first program component, wherein a particular version number is included in the second list only if a version of the first program component having the particular version number is compatible with a current version of the second program component; obtaining the current version numbers of the first and the second program components, wherein a new version number is assigned to a respective one of the first and the second program components whenever an interface configuration of the respective program component is changed; determining that the first program component is compatible with the second program component when at least one of the following conditions is determined to exist: the current version number of the first program component is included in the second list; and the current version number of the second program component is included in the first list; and performing an installation of the first program component only if the first program component is determined to be compatible with the second program component.