Abstract: A vending system for automatic sale of articles selected by a customer, comprising a display for displaying groups of vending information in respective steps of a vending procedure that are executed to select one of the articles. The vending system comprises an advancing key and a returning key which enable the vending procedure to be advanced from the currently established step to the next, or to be reversed to revert to the preceding step. The vending system further comprises a payment-control device for commanding the display to display a price of the selected article, and for detecting an amount of a payment medium deposited for the selected article. The selected article is delivered when the detected amount of the payment medium is equal to or larger than the displayed price.

Abstract: A software vending system comprising a host system including primary memory means for storing a plurality of different software programs, and a plurality of peripheral vending instruments each operatively connected to the host system for interactive data communication therebetween. Each of the peripheral vending instruments includes a selector device for selecting a desired one of the software programs, and a recording device operable to duplicate in a recording medium the selected software program transferred from the primary memory means in response to the operation of the selector device.

Abstract: A software vending instrument comprising a memory for storing a plurality of different software programs, selector switches for selecting a desired program from among the stored programs, a recording device for duplicating the selected program in a recording medium, and a central processing device for retrieving from the memory the desired program when it is selected by the selector switches. The central processing device operates the recording device to duplicate the selected control program in the recording medium. The instrument may further comprise a visual display device on which the selected program is executed during the duplication of the program and/or demonstrated to show the contents of the program before the selected program is duplicated. The memory may include a memory area for storing labelling data used to print labels to identify the programs, and/or sales data representing the number of duplication of each program. The sales data of the program is updated each time the program is duplicated.

Abstract: A software vending system comprising a host system including a first memory for storing a plurality of first software programs and a plurality of peripheral vending instruments operatively connected to the host system for interactive data communication, each peripheral vending instrument including a secondary memory for storing the first software programs transferred from the first memory of the host system, and a recording device for duplicating in a recordinng medium a selected one of the first software programs stored in the secondary memory. The peripheral vending instrument further includes an input device for entering a second software program into the vending instrument, and a data transmitting device for transferring to the host system the second software program entered through the input device.