1. An application development system for a medical imaging system, which comprises: a component library for storing components written in an object-oriented programming language, wherein one or more component includes at least one connection point for receiving an input or providing an output and wherein each component provides a predefined function; and a graphic building area, wherein a user selectively moves components from the component library to the graphic building area and graphically links at least one connection point from a selected component to a connection point of another of the selected components, the graphical link providing a software reference to each of the selected components to define an executable application; and a component for serializing and downloading the executable application to the medical imaging system.