User interface control software for a communication device

A communication device having an interface for interacting with a user, the communication device comprising:

• user interface hardware;
• communication hardware;
• a memory having a user interface control software system;
• a controller coupled to the memory, to the user interface hardware, and to the communication hardware, the controller providing operational control of the user interface hardware using the user interface control software system;
• wherein the user interface control software system comprises:
• a plurality of executable software components organized into a plurality of software partitions comprising a core partition, a device specific partition, a feature enabler partition, and a signaling partition;
• the core partition having software components that perform input handling, application interaction management, application control management, and output handling;
• the device specific partition having software components that provide services for interfacing with the user interface hardware;
• the feature enabler partition having software components that implement procedures for interfacing with the user to perform a particular task;
• the signaling partition comprising software components that implement a plurality of signaling types, and a signal discriminating module that selects from among the plurality of signaling types;
• and
• wherein the plurality of executable software components incorporates an interface protocol that govern all communication between any two of the plurality of software partitions such that the plurality of software partitions have independent operation with respect to each other except for calls made according to the interface protocol.

In a communication device having user interface hardware for interacting with a user, a method comprising:

• operating a first set of software components that manage signaling procedures that require a user interface;
• operating a second set of software components that implement procedures that interact with the user through the user interface hardware, which second set of software components utilize services of the first set of software components;
• operating a third set of software components that perform interaction and control management for the second set of software components, and which provide services to the second set of software components;
• operating the first, second, and third sets of software components, in first, second, and third logically separated software partitions, respectively, as part of a user interface software system, which components of the first, second, and third logically separated software partitions interface with each other only through an interface protocol that governs all communication therebetween;
• operating a fourth set of software components in a fourth logically separated software partition, which fourth set of software components provide device specific services to the first, second, and third sets of software components;
• and
• operating the first, second, third, and fourth sets of software components only through the interface protocol.