A shock absorber testing apparatus comprising a ramp shaped to excite a particular wheel of the automobile at a frequency bandpass intermediate the fundamental frequency of the automobile spring-mass system and the fundamental frequency of unsprung elements of the suspension, strain gages disposed on the ramp for measuring the wheel loading as the wheel is passed thereover, switch means disposed to be tripped by the automobile wheel as the front wheel leaves the ramp and the rear wheel approache...

A new class of data file storing objects which have the ability to self-extract, i.e. within objects in the new class, there is a method to extract selected individual files stored in the objects. There is provided a computer controlled object oriented programming system having means for interfacing a plurality of programming objects with each other and including at least one data storage object of an object class comprising means within said object for storing a plurality of data files, and mea...

A method for handling upgrades of systems comprising two circuit packs which contain memory. In one embodiment, on some trigger signal to a circuit pack, that circuit pack acts as a slave circuit pack, and causes version information for the data stored in the memory of the second circuit pack, which acts as a master circuit pack, to be transferred to the slave circuit pack. If the transferred version information indicates that the data in the slave circuit pack should be updated, the slave circu...

Code module interfaces are provided which allow a user to adjust the functionality of a program at run-time. The code module interfaces (CMIs) can be selectively activated by a user at run-time. Then, the control software will call the CMIs at various instances, for example, at startup, after each state change in the control software, at idle time and when the control software has completed all of its tasks. Alternatively, when each CMI is loaded, it can specify at which state change(s) that CMI...

A method and implementing system is provided by which software is formatted to include a selected program together with installation instructions for the installation of the selected program. In an exemplary embodiment, the software is an archive containing the selected program and an installer program. In a specific example, a manifest file, which is contained within a JAR file includes a manifest tag which specifies a class to be executed for the installation process. In another exemplary embo...

A system, method, and program enables a platform independent way for specifying a property, or function, of a program. Values of properties that are specific to a given operating system are treated as a variable in a program which enables it to run on multiple operating systems. This enables the program to be developed and run on different operating systems. The program reads in the properties and the values, or variables, from a script file into property objects. As such, variables that have me...

A manager for a dynamic complex system is disclosed which associates a single, simple, versatile and malleable Management Scheme with each entity of the system, including the system itself. The Management Scheme permits management of systems via the mapping of information to a simple hierarchical management level wherein all of the information necessary to manage the system can be manipulated and communicated throughout the system via simple arithmetic operations. The Management Scheme is a comp...

A computerized system and a method for generating a custom software configuration for a hard drive of a computer system according to desired software configuration defined by a purchasing customer. The computerized system and method utilizes an image builder for creating a disk image of the desired software configuration and transferring the image to a storage device. The storage device is connected to an image server that transfers the disk image directly to the hard drive during a manufacturin...

A system for controlling the distribution of software in a customized configuration to a plurality of computers in a network environment, comprising console means for creating distribution control information which is both associated with the software and related to said customized configuration, server means responsive to the console means for storing the software and the distribution control information; agent means resident on each computer for downloading the software in accordance with the ...

In a method of replacing a first version of software with a second version of software, the second version of software is loaded into a data processor on which the first version of software is running. While the first version of software is running on the data processor, the first version of software is used to modify a data memory for compatibility with the second version of software.