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

"Sean M" <smckeownNO_at_BACKSIESadelphia.net> wrote in message news:3D717484.53F5E7C_at_BACKSIESadelphia.net...
> jim wrote:
> >

> > We ship with around 60 of the most common jobs (export table, database
> > shutdown, and so on ad nauseam). In addition you can add your own to
the
> > dictionary.
>
> Which begs the question - who is using your canned scripts for common
> jobs in a production environment? People that probably ought to have
> more experience - I assure you that any DBA who couldn't shutdown a
> database without assitance from TOAD wouldn't be working for me for very
> long. Does that mean you shouldn't include them in your product? No,
> by all means, put them in there. I just take exception to the
> insinuation that you're somehow going to replace SQL*Plus with a GUI
> like TOAD.

For a LOT of people, we will. We wouldn't be implementing such features otherwise.

> > But it does allow the complete Unix novice the ability to
> > perform these tasks.
>
> And that's exactly my concern. I believe that complete Unix novices
> have absolutely no business mucking around with crontab entries for
> oracle or root on production systems.

That's funny. My first "DBA" as a developer could barely spell DBA yet she had responsibilities the same as any other DBA.

> > We do support AutoTrace.
>
> Your website (http://www.toadsoft.com/Enhancements.htm) says that the
> new Beta version of TOAD only partially supports autotrace:
>
> SET AUTOTRACE (statistics only)
>
> I read that to mean you don't support the traceonly and explain options.

Yes, we do the stats only. The Plan is coded but not released.

> > I never intended to support Sql*Plus anything; we're a gui tool and not
a
> > script engine.
>
> So why do you come here and insist that your product is going to do away
> with SQL*Plus? Why criticize SQL*Plus and those who use it so
> vehemently? It is what it is: a great command line tool.

I didn't "come in here" and do anything, sir. I came in here to counter a vulgar TOAD basher and become engaged in this thread. And I wouldn't have implemented *any* Sql*Plus functionality or syntax in TOAD whatsoever (being the parsing beast that it is) had it not been for the huge demand from users who do not want to have to use that "great command line tool." And I'm talking about a LARGE number of users. I simply grew tiresome of the complaints that TOAD scripts couldn't do X or couldn't run Y. I took them as enhancement requests but most were filed as bug reports and thus had to be dealt with.

Our users are happy in TOAD but want to be able to do everything they currently do without dropping out to another product. I originally added "execute via Sql*Plus" as an option but that wasn't sufficient. So it makes perfect sense from a product development point of view to give the users what they want. And it get's that boulder from around our necks. We began with 7.2 and increased support in 7.3 and now 7.4 will up the ante another notch or two. And we will continue to do so until the users stop asking for additional Sql*Plus functionality.

Yes, we are late to the game because I delayed having to do this for the longest time. I wanted to concentrate on gui functionality and not mundane -- boring to code -- scripting functionality. But we wont be long in catching up. We never are. Received on Sat Aug 31 2002 - 21:34:58 CDT