Pathway Products Glossary

Glossary
Compaq NonStop™ Pathway Products Glossary—426762-001
Glossary-5
configuration source file
configuration source file. A file of PXMCFG statements that define and add the
Pathway/XM objects required to support an application. The PXMCFG utility processes
these statements and uses them to build the SuperCTL file. See also SuperCTL file.
configured TERM object. In a PATHMON environment, a TERM object that is explicitly
configured with a PATHCOM ADD TERM command. Such a TERM object exists until
it is explicitly deleted. Names of configured TERM objects begin with a letter. See also
temporary TERM object
and TERM object. (2) In a Pathway/XM environment, a
TERM object that is explicitly configured with a PXMCFG ADD TERM statement.
Such a TERM object is part of the Pathway/XM configuration source file; to delete it,
you must create and migrate to a new configuration source file that does not add this
TERM object. Names of configured TERM objects begin with a letter. See also
temporary TERM object
and TERM object.
consistency. See database consistency
.
context. Information required by a server to process the current request in an exchange of
multiple request and reply messages: for example, identification of the last item
processed. See also context-free server
and terminal context.
context-free server. A server that does not retain any information about the processing of
previous requests. A context-free server accepts a single message from a requester,
performs the requested tasks, and issues a single reply to respond to the requester. After
the reply message is issued, the server retains no information, or context, that can be
used in subsequent requests. In general, context-free servers are relatively simple to
program and can be restarted quickly, but they require the requester to pass context
information to the server on each request. Servers handling requests from Pathsend
requesters can be either context-free or context-sensitive, but servers handling requests
from SCREEN COBOL requesters must be context-free. A context-free server is
analogous to a NonStop™ TUXEDO request/response server. Subsystems provided by
Compaq for NonStop™ Himalaya systems are context-free servers; therefore,
management applications using the Subsystem Programmatic Interface (SPI) to
communicate with such subsystems must pass back context information in continuation
requests. See also context
, context-sensitive server, and Subsystem Programmatic
Interface (SPI).
context-sensitive server. A server that retains information about the processing of previous
requests. A context-sensitive Pathway server can engage in a multiple-message
communication, or dialog, with a requester. Because context-sensitive servers must
maintain message context for the dialog, they are more complex to program than
context-free servers. They typically have longer restart times because they must recover
the requester context. See also context
and context-free server.
context sensitivity. The ability of a requester to exchange a series of multiple request and
reply messages (that is, a dialog) with a particular server process. See also context-
sensitive server and dialog.
conversation. See dialog
.