Method of executing software applications

Abstract

There is provided a method of executing one or more Xlet software applications in a broadcasting system (10) including a broadcast provider (20) coupled via at least one communication link (30) to at least one corresponding user interface (40, 50) including associated computing hardware therein. The method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving one or more requests from at least one user (60) associated with said at least one user interface (40, 50) for executing at least one preferred software application; (b) checking memory associated with said at least one user interface (40, 50) to determine whether or not said at least one preferred software application is resident therein; (c) when said at least one software application is found to be already stored in said memory and validated, loading from the memory said at least one preferred software application to said computing hardware associated with said at least one user interface (40, 50) and then executing the software application in said computing hardware; and (d) when said at least one application is found to be not already stored in the memory, receiving from the broadcast provider (20) said at least one preferred software application, loading said at least one application to the computing hardware, validating said at least one application in the computing hardware and then subsequently executing said at least one application when validated in the computing hardware.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.