Patent ID: 7334015

Claim:
A method for conducting an exchange of data with a terminal-based application program comprising: (a) mapping a plurality of available states within a terminal data stream of the terminal-based application program to respective discrete state definitions within a finite state machine, including: (1) interpreting any element, terminal command, data item, or sequence of terminal commands and data items within the terminal data stream as a discrete state having a respective one of the state definitions, and (2) using an object model containing a set of interfaces, said interfaces being utilized as a basis for the state definitions; (b) prompting a user for rules criteria and expected outcomes of the respective state definitions; (c) aggregating the plurality of available states within the terminal data stream to eliminate redundant states, including: (1) accessing data in the plurality of available states; (2) unifying and resolving the data in the plurality of available states to eliminate the redundant states; and, (d) defining a plurality of state transition rules which are utilized to manipulate the state definitions within the finite state machine.