Abstract: Upon receiving a message, a mail server (20) causes an SMSC (30) to transmit a reception notice. In response to the reception notice, a digest acquisition unit (211) of a cellular phone (60) requests information (digest information) about the message of the mail server (20). In accordance with a user's instruction for the digest information, a control unit (214) instructs a message acquisition unit (212) to receive each part of the message. Consequently, the message can efficiently be transmitted, and unnecessary traffic can be reduced.

Abstract: In a method for supporting the design of a plurality of programs distributed on a network and operated through the communication between the programs, each program is defined, a relation between programs is defined, interface information of each program is defined, and the interface defined for each program is converted into an interface definition language (IDL) format to generate an IDL file. The definition of each program and the definition of the relation between programs are performed by providing a graphic display screen to which a program represented by a symbol and a relation between programs represented by an arrow are inputted as definition information by a user. The definition of interface information is performed by inputting information defined by the user in an interactive manner.