Patent ID: 8200807

Claim:
In a computing device providing an environment for state diagramming, a method comprising: obtaining a state diagram via the environment using the computing device, the state diagram comprising: a plurality of states, each state representing the mode of an object at an instant in time, and one or more transitions, each transition representing a change from one state to another and being triggered by an event; processing a first event for the state diagram by evaluating the first event or one of the plurality of states; triggering a second event, wherein the triggering is based on the first event; determining whether to broadcast the second event, the determining comprising: obtaining a delay time value for processing the second event, and initiating processing of the second event based on the delay time value; and broadcasting the second event, the broadcasting: sending the second event to one or more states that are not connected to an originator of the broadcast by a transition, occurring using a command that identifies an event to be sent and a destination state, awakening the destination state if the destination state is active, and occurring in a non-blocking fashion that allows the first event to continue processing.