Re: A rant against Oracle's SQL*Plus!

Has anyone tried the "SQL Scratchpad" feature in Enterprise Manager?

Here's how to try it.

1. Install the latest version of Enterprise Manager
2. Connect to a database
3. Right-click on the database and choose "SQL Scratchpad" from the menu.

SQL Scratchpad has a toad-like interface. You edit the SQL statement using the full-screen editor in the top half of the screen, and view the results in the grid in the bottom half of the screen.

Doesn't this address all the criticism about SQL*Plus?

"David Cook" <DavidHCook_at_comcast.HIDDEN.net> wrote in message news:bGW89.122169$2p2.5523637_at_bin4.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com...
> I've been working with Oracle DB client (8i) on NT
> (aka SQL*Plus) for about 2-3 months now. (And, as
> a comparison, I've also used the 'freeware' MySQL
> cmd-line SQL client.)
>
> And, I'm almost dumb-founded at how archaic
> and primitive that SQL*Plus is! The lack of
> what I call 'useability' features in SQL*Plus
> is so bad (in my opinion) that I now affectionately
> call it SQL-minus.
>
> I don't want to make this rant go on too long, so
> I'll try for just a short list of the more obvious missing
> features (those that seem almost trivial to implement
> if Oracle cared to):
> o Click on help. (The menu-item is there, but it
> tells you to go find a hard-copy of the
> manual!) Come on, folks. Couldn't you
> even provide a simple list of the cmds, such
> as SELECT, UPDATE, (etc), and the list
> of 'proprietary-to-Oracle' cmds?
>
> o Why can't continued-hits of the up-arrow key
> retrieve previously-issued cmds? (The only
> cmd that can be recalled that way is the most
> recent one.) [Yeah, there IS some built-in
> goofy UI for 'retrieving/editing previous cmds,
> but again you need some frigging manual and
> some non-trivial 'practicing time' to figure out their
> 'wierldly-implemented' scheme and learn it.]
>
> o Here's my FAVORITE one: How about a
> (albeit proprietary) cmd to 'show names of all
> tables' in the current DB? [This is a no-brainer,
> and I was pleased to learn that MySQL developers
> saw fit to implement this one...as well as a number
> of others which are almost as obvious!]
>
> I'll stop here. But, I still can't believe that the supposed
> 'industry-leading database supplier' can get away with
> shipping such a primitive SQL tool as 'SQL Minus'.
>
> My 2-cents (no, 2-dollars) worth...
>
> Dave
>
>
Received on Mon Dec 02 2002 - 05:45:28 CET