Abstract: A system for modeling computer software product line variants may include a model builder configured to construct a model of a plurality of variants of a computer software application. The model may include at least one common-to-variants element that may be common to a plurality of the variants, a plurality of variant-specific elements, and interface code configured to adapt any of the variant-specific elements to any of the common-to-variants elements. The model may further include an application generator configured to generate a plurality of computer software applications for a corresponding plurality of combinations of the common-to-variants elements and the variant-specific elements, where the model builder and the application generator may be implemented in at least one of computer hardware and computer software embodied in a tangible computer-readable storage medium.

Abstract: A method and system are described for processing an extended information element, the extended information element being composed of a word component and a stamp component, by a computing system that can transfer the extended information element but cannot manipulate the stamp component of the extended information element. The method includes: providing a stamp processing system for manipulating the stamp component, processing a value of the stamp component by the stamp processing system, and controlling an operation on the word component based on the value of the stamp component.