23. A set top box for receiving from a broadcast center an application program and a glyph, wherein the application program includes a character for display on a television, wherein the glyph describes a graphic representation of the character, the set top box comprising: a receiver configured to receive said application program and said glyph from the broadcast center; an operating environment configured to accept one or more glyph sets; a processor configured to operably receive said application program from said receiver and execute said application program; a hash table configured to store information regarding said one or more glyph sets; and a rendering engine for rendering said character for display on the television, wherein said rendering engine is operable to determine an index using the character, use the index to retrieve information from the hash table, and use the information from the hash table to render said character for display on the television.
23. A set top box for receiving from a broadcast center an application program and a glyph, wherein the application program includes a character for display on a television, wherein the glyph describes a graphic representation of the character, the set top box comprising: a receiver configured to receive said application program and said glyph from the broadcast center; an operating environment configured to accept one or more glyph sets; a processor configured to operably receive said application program from said receiver and execute said application program; a hash table configured to store information regarding said one or more glyph sets; and a rendering engine for rendering said character for display on the television, wherein said rendering engine is operable to determine an index using the character, use the index to retrieve information from the hash table, and use the information from the hash table to render said character for display on the television. 31. The set top box as recited in claim 23, further comprising an encoding engine configured to receive said character from said application program, and to invoke said rendering engine.