Finite state machine architecture for software development

A method for developing an application program having functionality that corresponds to a finite state machine (FSM) model, including the steps of:

• providing a library of dynamic link library (DLL) which include machine interpreted instructions describing standard actions, said library of DLLs stored in a first computer;
• providing a visual interface adapted to be stored in a second computer that generates a graphical environment on a display, the graphical environment including a workspace for creating and displaying an FSM model representing functionality of an application program adapted to be generated and executed in said first computer, the FSM model including a plurality of elements including state elements and transition elements connecting the state elements, wherein said FSM model is stored in an interpreted language comprising said markup language function calls corresponding to function calls to selected said machine interpreted instructions describing said standard actions, said FSM model is output as a first data file that is exported from said second computer and used in said first computer;
• providing a software processor in said first computer that uses the FSM model elements to generate the application program executed at run-time, each of the FSM elements including an markup language description defining functionality of a respective one of said FSM elements, at least some of the markup language descriptions including said function calls to said standard actions corresponding to basic software functions;
• and
• providing a graphic user interface in said first computer that provides the end-user interface features to the end-user as generated during run-time by the software processor based on the FSM model elements;
• 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 define or modify functionality of the FSM elements, the markup language descriptions of the functionality being stored in a database;
• 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.

A computer implemented method for developing and executing an application program, including the steps of:

• providing an action library in a first computer comprising a dynamic link library (DLL) comprising functions describing one or more standard actions, wherein each of said functions are referenced by a unique function call which has an identifier;
• creating a finite state machine (FSM) model of the application program using a visual interface in a second computer, the FSM model including a plurality of elements comprising states, triggers and actions, wherein said visual interface is adapted to enable a user to select or define said states and triggers, said visual interface is further adapted to enable a user to select one or more said actions by said identifier associated with each selected said standard action;
• storing a plurality of markup language descriptions of each of the FSM model elements in a file structure on a first computer system including selected markup language descriptions associated with selected said identifiers or function calls associated with each of said FSM model elements created using said visual interface;
• executing said FSM on said first computer system using the markup language descriptions at run-time using a software processor to generate messages representing the markup language descriptions based on said selected identifier or function calls which are looked up in said action library storing said DLLs based on said plurality of markup language descriptions;
• using a graphic user interface in said first computer system to execute the messages at run-time to provide end-user interface features representing the application program to an end-user;
• 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.