Stored procedures vs. transactions (TP monitors)

  Before Informix v5.1 and Oracle v7 were available then there were two ways to implement complicated transactions (for example 'withdrawal', 'account status' and such):

1. Write the logic in the client program. (Lots of SQL flying back and forth over the network).
2. Buy a transaction monitor and write the logic as a transaction which the client executes remotly.

Today, you can write this stuff as a stored procedure and it will work exactly (?) as a transaction did in the 'old days'.

If you have a lot of clients (200-300 PC's) which will be running transactions all day and there isn't a great need for SQL access then which way is the best to go ? Use stored procedures or use a TP monitor ? What is the 'load' on the server in each case ? Is it faster to send transaction than to run stored procedures ? How much memory does each method use in the client (These are PC's running MS-DOS)

If the answer is that stored procedures will be a better choise, isn't the TP monitor then a relic of the past ? Why should you spend a lot of money on something which you have anyway with your RDBMS ?

If anyone has some experience with a TP monitor and a RDBMS which has stored procedures and is willing to shed some light on this matter, then please post or send e-mail to me.

Thanks
  Steinthor

-- 
Steinthor Bjarnason    | ICEUUG chairman         | This space available for 
Islandsbanki h.f.      | Internet: stb_at_isbank.is | rent.....
Kringlan 7             |      Tel: +354-1-608000 |
155 Reykjavik, Iceland |      Fax: +354-1-678711 |