Patent Document ID: 4498147
Application ID: 06442927

Base Claim:
1. A method of transforming a source document, cast in a first editable form which includes a plurality of input items therein, to a target document of a second editable form which includes output items compatible therewith, said method comprising the steps of: (a) determining a set of key state variables, from amongst all possible key state variables, that reflect and collectively identify information concerning the presence of source document control items that are read in a sequence thereof from said source document; (b) determining criteria for compatibility of source input items to be read with source controls that have been read in a sequence and reflected in said key state variables; (c) establishing a fixed order for all possible output items in which any necessary pair of output items in the transformation of a given input sequence will be written in said established order; (d) defining a set of rules for each possible output item that determine whether each of said possible output items is to be written out to said target document as a function of the status of said state variables; and (e) reading a sequence of input items from said source document in accordance with said compatibility criteria; and (f) writing out all eligible output items under said rules as a transform of said sequence in said fixed order of output items.

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Claim 7:
7. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of establishing said fixed order of all possible output items is accomplished by writing a decision table containing hierarchical rules of order for particular pairs of output items and then sorting the rows so that the numbers forming the hierarchy increase from top to bottom of said table.