Patent Document ID: 8429605
Application ID: 12650413

Base Claim:
1. A computer implemented system for developing an application program having functionality that corresponds to a finite state machine (FSM) model, including: a first plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions adapted to be stored on a first computer comprising an action library including a plurality of dynamic link library (DLL) files operable to execute a plurality of functions comprising one or more standard actions associated with a plurality of potential FSM models; a second plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions adapted to be stored in a second computer system operable to generate a visual interface that generates a graphical environment on a display associated with said second computer system, the graphic environment including a workspace for creating and displaying an FSM model representing functionality of an application program, the FSM model including a plurality of elements including state elements, said standard actions, and transition elements connecting the state elements, wherein said visual interface further is adapted to output a first data file that is adapted to be output from said second computer and stored in said first computer comprising a third plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions comprising one or more specifications of a generated said FSM model which includes markup language descriptions comprising one or more identifiers for said plurality of functions associated with said one or more standard actions within said DLL files; a fourth plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions adapted to be stored in said first computer system comprising a dynamic state machine processor (DSMP) that uses the first data file storing said FSM model elements and said action library to generate the application program executed at run-time, each of the FSM elements is referenced in said first data file including at least one of said markup language descriptions defining functionality of a respective one of said FSM elements, at least some of the markup language descriptions including function calls to said standard actions comprising one or more said identifiers to one or more said standard actions stored in said DLLs within said action library corresponding to basic software functions associated with a control system; and a fifth plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions comprising an extensible graphic user interface (GUIX) adapted to be stored in said first computer system that provides an interactive control system interface including the end-user interface features to the end-user as generated during run-time by the DSMP based on the action library and the first data file comprising said FSM model elements, wherein said GUIX is operable to generate a plurality of interactive graphical user interface displays based on said first data file, said DSMP, and said action library, where the DSMP performs a lookup of said standard actions stored in said DLL files that are specified in said first data file and generates said plurality of interactive graphical user interfaces based at least in part on data stored in said first data file and retrieved from said action library; wherein the visual interface includes a plurality of editor buttons, activation of which cause the visual interface to display editor windows that permit a technician to build said FSMs within said visual interface by defining or selecting said FSM elements including said state elements, said standard actions associated with said DLL files stored in said action library, and said transition elements as well as define or modify functionality of the FSM elements, the markup language descriptions of the functionality being stored in a database in said second computer comprising at least one said first data file; wherein the visual interface includes a controller, a state machine GUI and a state machine layout system, the state machine GUI and the state machine layout system being configured to generate a graphic representation of the FSM model on the workspace according to a current state of the FSM model provided by the controller.

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Claim 14:
14. The system of claim 1 wherein the visual interface includes a file save/load block that interfaces with the database of markup language descriptions and an markup language schema block to save and load markup language descriptions associated with FSM elements according to schema included in the markup language schema block.