PROCESSING DEVICE WITH FUNCTION EXPANSION MEANS, AND METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXPANDING FUNCTION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve flexible and safe function expansion by adapting a variety of expanded functions provided by an expanded processing device to a variety of operating environments, and customizing the functions to each user and each operation, in a system where a main processing device and the expanded processing device providing expanded functions are interconnected by a communication path. SOLUTION: The main processing device includes an expanded function registering means by which expanded function information including information on the procedure of executing the expanded functions of the expanded processing device and expanded menu information for the display of a menu is loaded from the expanded processing device and registered; an expanded function management table in which the expanded function information is registered; menu format definition information which describes the display format of the menu; and an expanded menu generating means by which the expanded function menu display data registered are generated in accordance with the menu format definition information. The main processing device also includes an expanded group management means for managing the groups of the expanded functions registered; current effective expanded group information; and object expanded group information for each entry of the expanded function management table. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI