Re: Has anyone used the QuestSqlPlus Toad tool from Toadsoft?

> Well my developers can't seem to be able to create, compile, and
> execute a package without TOAD. I believe that this will, over the
> long haul hurt their career development. Those developers who rely
> on GUI development tools will have a hard time making the transition
> to DBA if they cannot code sql, PL/sql, and ddl in text.

That is a two-edged argument. In the hour(s) it could take to create a rebuild script for a table, a user can do the same in TOAD with a single click. The user can drop a column or rename a column in a pre-8i db and not know a thing about the generated script.

Now, do they actually ever need to know any of that? That is the question. As more and more of the DBA's daily tasks are being encapsulated into Wizards and windows within TOAD, even the DBA him or herself will find themselves spending very little time in a primitive scripting tool such as Sql*Plus. Does it reduce the user's knowledge of the system views in Oracle or the architecture of the Oracle database? Probably. But from the corporate stand point, it also makes them two, three, four or maybe even 10 times more productive. So I guess it depends on your perspective. Do I need to know all of the windows api calls encapsulated in the Delphi call to create a new window? No, clearly not at all. It certianly helps to understand what is going on but it doesn't help my job performance one iota to have to code it all by hand.

I actually believe it works the other way around. Those who refuse to embrace the guis will be those left in the dust of the careers of those who have learned how to master the gui tools. We will never be done with TOAD, yet as we implement more and more developer and DBA requested features that reduce mundane chores into single clicks, we force more and more Sql*Plus dependent dinosaurs into the tar pits. The need to "drop back" to scripting will never be entirely eliminated (after all, that's what we do behind the scenes), but it will become a minute part of a typical DBA's daily routine. E.g., with v7.4, a DBA user can schedule nearly all of the typical DBA Unix cron jobs (we include many of the more popular ones with TOAD) with a single click. The user needn't even know anything about telnet to use the feature. And we have taken the "mystery" out of the process. We can have configurable db health checks sitting in your inbox when your arrive at work. We can alert you by pager when a tablepsace is full or a db goes down.

Have we done the users a sevice or a disservice? That really depeneds. If the user in TOAD can accomplish in minutes what it takes a notepad user hours to accomplish, then the opinions will vary based upon whether we are that consultant charging by the hour or the employer paying by the hour.

Now, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the small group of people who are wizards with Oracle and Sql*Plus. These are the very types of people who are helping us build functionality into TOAD. But it is by THEIR request that we do so. More often than not, they are the ones who help us architect the features and refine them. They, too, want to be more productive in their jobs. "I do this every day and it would be nice if I could just click here and let it go...." They, as do I, see TOAD sitting on top of Oracle as Delphi or VB or C++ sitting on top of Windows.

Jim
aka Toadman Received on Wed Aug 28 2002 - 22:33:37 CDT