Abstract: Customer premises equipment (11B) connected to a telephone line (13B), is arranged to be woken up remotely and then to initiate communication with a network-based service system. (20). In order to avoid the cost involved in having a dedicated phone line for the equipment, the equipment (11B) needs to be able to be woken up in a selective manner that does not have significant impact on the operation of other apparatus that may be connected to the same phone line (13B). Several different techniques are provided for waking up the equipment (11B) and initiating communication with the service system (20). In one embodiment, equipment wakeup is effected by a call with particular characteristics, the equipment (11B) once woken up calling a network access point (18) to establish communication with the service system (20). In another embodiment, a wakeup call is placed via a network access point (18) and the equipment picks up the call and uses it to establish network access.

Abstract: A method in a computer system provides for the establishment of a link between two object data structures, the link specifying shared data. A first user command specifies the shared data and specifies a first object data structure as source of the shared data. A second user command specifies a second object data structure with which the data will be shared. The first user command may be accomplished by a user highlighting the shared data and selecting a share command. As a result a link is constructed which includes a reference to the shared data, a first object data structure, which is the source of the shared data and a clipboard object. The second user command may be accomplished by a user selecting on the computer display an area within a first window controlled by the second object and then selecting a paste command. The first object then may display the shared data in the area in the first window.

Abstract: An object oriented distributed computing system is provided. Processing means call a location service within automatically generated stubs in response to a request for a service provided by a particular object. The location service is automatically called on behalf of the requester to locate the target object when the request is issued. Multiple Object Managers reflecting multiple Object Models are permitted in the system. Programmers and users do not need to know the Object Model adhered to by an Object Manager. A request to any object in the system is independent of the Object Model of the sought object's Object Manager. A generic interface enables new Object Managers reflecting new Object Models to be easily added to the system. Availability of the target object is independent of association of the target object with a process at the time the request was issued. Deactivation of processes is automatically accomplished in response to the system needing resources.

Abstract: An object based data processing system comprising a plurality of storage domains arranged so that a semantic object in a second storage domain can be accessed by the user of a first storage domain by the creation of a new presentation object in the first storage domain which is linked via a transient communication link to the semantic object in the second storage domain. Each storage domain includes a global object into which the user of the storage domain can place objects to be made accessible to other storage domains and a distributed object containing the global objects of all other storage domains. By opening a distributed object in any storage domain, the user is given access to the global objects of other storage domains, including those of other users.

Abstract: A file management system removes an object from the file management system by first deleting a link to the first object. When a link to the first object is deleted the file management system determines whether there are any links to the first object remaining. If there are no links remaining, the first object is destroyed by removing data files associated with the first object.

Abstract: A file management system allows the linking of objects. In each link one object serves as a parent and the other as a child. When a parent object is copied the parent object is copied to produce a copy of the parent object. Additionally, the child objects of the parent object are copied as well, except in the case when the child object is designated as a special public object, each child of the parent object is copied to produce a copy of the child object. Each copy of a child object is then linked to the copy of the parent object. When a child object is designated as a special public object, the child object is linked to the copy of the parent object.

Abstract: A computer having a file management system is presented. The file management system includes a plurality of application programs, a plurality of data files, a plurality of class data structures and a plurality of object data structures. Each class data structure includes a reference to an application program within the plurality of application programs. Each object data structure includes a reference to a class data structure from the plurality of class data structure and a reference to at least one data file from the plurality of data files.The use of object data structures adds a layer between a user of the computer and data files. This allows for the computer to refer to an object data structure and associated access files using a tag which is inaccessible to the user. The user refers to an object based on the physical location of the object on the screen. The user may also give the object data structure a name, which is wholly unconnected to the value of the tag.