Abstract: A program arrangement presently disclosed provides support within an operating system for a commonly used class of peripheral devices (e.g. mouse devices or, more generally, pointing devices). This arrangement effectively eliminates dependencies between device driver software associated with the supported device(s) and system (and/or application) software; so that device driver software can be created without extensive knowledge of the operating system and system software can be modified cost effectively without affecting the usefulness of existing device drivers. In this arrangement, device driving functions are assigned to two discretely separate program modules having a standardized interface. One module, included in the operating system, provides a device-independent base for coordinating device and system interaction. The other module is associated specifically and directly with supported devices, and can be created by programmers having little knowledge of the internal structure of the system software.