Patent ID: 8924837

Claim:
A method of processing a text file used to communicate between a computer application and a user, the method comprising the steps: describing a text format by using fragments of text from the text file for creating a plurality of templates, wherein each of the templates has literal fragments of the text file, and each of the templates includes substitution points; when the format of the text file changes, changing the templates; using macro classes to map data from the text file to the computer application; embedding in each of the templates a call to one of the macro classes; and using the templates as overlays to parse the text file into segments having data, or as a prototype to generate a segment of an output file; using an interaction of the templates and the macro classes to describe a flow of control to process the text file, including the steps of: when reaching said call in one of the templates, using said call to invoke one of said macro classes, using said invoked macro class to process the text file, and said invoked macro class then invoking another one of the templates to further process the text file, whereby the templates and the macro class describe a flow of control of the processing of the text file; and wherein: the macro classes include an input macro and an output macro; and the using said macro classes to map data from the test file to the computer application includes: using the input macro to read in a segment of the text file and to use said read in segment to initiate update processing of the computer application; and using the output macro to derive data from the computer application and to format said derived data into the text file.