Introduction to Pathmaker

Overview of Pathway
Introduction to Pathmaker and Pathway
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Overview of Pathway Pathway is a Tandem product that supplies the tools and environment that assist in
the creation and running of OLTP applications. Because the Pathmaker product's
main purpose is to help create Pathway applications, a working knowledge of basic
Pathway concepts and terminology is a prerequisite to understanding the Pathmaker
product.
Benefits of Using Pathway There are two primary benefits gained by using the Pathway product. These benefits
are as follows:
The Pathway product allows application designers and developers to design and
code their applications as if these programs were going to run in a simple, single-
terminal environment.
The Pathway product provides all of the complex support required to run these
programs in a multiterminal, high-transaction volume environment.
If a business could automate its operations through batch processing or by using a
single terminal to sequentially process a small number of online transactions,
developing applications to support the business would be relatively simple.
Using this type of system, each application could:
Process data from only one end user request at a time.
Update the database without concern that other users may attempt to modify the
same data at the same time.
Consider, however, the many demands and constraints of an environment where:
Hundreds of terminals are connected to the computer.
New terminals are added to the system periodically as the business grows.
The transaction volume amounts to hundreds, or even thousands, of transactions
each hour.
Transactions can attempt to change the same data at the same time.
In these cases, OLTP applications are far more complex and sophisticated than
applications developed for a single-terminal, low-transaction volume environment.
The problem of developing and controlling these applications also becomes
correspondingly more difficult—especially if a business requires its database to be
correct and current at all times.
Pathway and the features provided by other Tandem products are designed to help
solve these problems.