Method for communicating changes made to text form a text processor to a remote host

A method of communicating changes made to text formed by lines of characters received from a remote source as electrical signals by an electronic processor to said remote source whereby said processor includes means for storing text, means for receiving, modifying, and transmitting text, and a device for inputting information, each character being represented within the processor and the source as a coded number,

• comprising the steps of:
• (a) generating by said processor and storing in said storing means a respective checking number corresponding to each one of a plurality of lines of characters received from the source, each checking number being formed from the coded numbers by recursively combining and ringshifting said numbers in a predetermined order;
• (b) modifying by the processor the received text to form a body of modified lines based upon the information input through the inputting device;
• (c) generating by the processor a checking number of each line of modified text;
• and
• (d) associatively comparing by said processor the checking numbers of consecutive counterpart lines of the modified text with those of the received text and transmitting by said processor back to said remote source the entire text of only those lines which have been modified as denoted by said lines having checking numbers mismatching those of the received text thereby to minimize communication of changes made to the text between the remote source and processor, said step of associatively comparing including the steps of:
• (1) comparing the checking numbers of consecutive counterpart lines of the modified and received texts and continuing said comparison linearly until the first mismatch is detected;
• (2) performing reciprocal comparison by comparing the next consecutive line checking number of the modified text to the preceding consecutive line checking numbers of the received text and comparing said consecutive line checking number of the received text with the next consecutive line checking numbers of the modified text, the reciprocal comparison continuing until a first match is detected;
• (3) repeating steps (1) and (2) until the lines of the received and modified texts become exhausted;
• and
• (4) transmitting to said remote source (a) the entire text of those lines which have been modified as denoted by a mismatch of corresponding checking numbers, and (b) indications of each run of at least a predetermined number of consecutive lines in the modified text whose checking numbers match checking numbers in the received text, said indications representing counts of lines of the received text which have not been modified or lines of received text which have been deleted.