METHOD AND DATA PROCESSING DEVICE FOR UPDATING COMPUTER PROGRAMS BY DATA TRANSMISSION

The invention relates to a delta compression method, which can be used in particular for updating computer programs, in particular by means of narrow-band transmission paths. The inventive method for creating the differential data does not only identify absolutely identical program areas but also those areas, in which the referenced memory addresses have changed as a result of moved program parts that are otherwise identical to those in the old program version. The identification of said relatively similar program parts is based on the interpretation of the referenced memory addresses in jump or access commands. Only the newly added program areas and address data for the individual program parts are transmitted as differential data. The memory size required by the differential data can thus be significantly reduced. During the update of the old program version, the new memory addresses are explicitly computed in addition to the moved program parts and are inserted into the new program version to be created.