I don’t know how many of you use the ScriptDOM. I haven’t really used it, but was very impressed with Mala Mahadevan’s Stairway Series on the topic. I have recommended this to a few customers that were looking for some complex code analysis features, which go beyond what SQL Prompt or SQL Fluff do.
I noticed this week that ScriptDom has been open sourced by Microsoft. The code is available on GitHub, which means you can fork it and change it. Or submit PRs. No idea if Microsoft will take them, but if you write solid, useful code, they might.
I like that more and more Microsoft is open-sourcing and sharing code that they write. Usually, their repos aren’t for software they sell, but maybe they will change that at some point.
There are over 5000 repos in their account right now, including one for VSCode, which I use almost every day. While I don’t plan on contributing or even bug-fixing, I bet some of you might. I might contribute to the docs, which I do regularly for the SQL Server docs. There are a lot of changes here, but there are a few marked way0utwest.
BTW, if you don’t want to do your own PRs, send me a note. I’m happy to edit the docs and submit changes.
I am a fan of open-source projects, because I do think collaboration is useful in many situations. While I don’t expect many people to actually make changes to software, some will. Some, like me, will correct docs, and others will find issues in the code and report them. All of those efforts help us improve software, and I am all for higher quality software.
Now if we could get Microsoft to open-source SSMS, maybe a few of you would find ways to improve that application.
Steve Jones
Voice of the DBA 
Steve – What exactly is SQLServerDocs? I went to the below location assuming it would include documentation about functions in T-SQL but of the handful I checked that was not the case. Is this a free for all so there’s no enforcement of consistency meaning anyone can put documentation about anything in any of the directories whether or not it’s relevant to that director like the FUNCTONS one I looked at? I knew it wasn;t going to something as professional as Red-gates documentation but I did expect anything within the FUNCTIONS directory to be about T-SQL Functions.
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/sql-docs/tree/live/docs/t-sql/functions
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Saw this comment over the weekend, but was busy on the ranch. And learning to smoke BBQ 😉
SQLServerDocs is the repo that generates this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=sql-server-ver16
Anything approved into main here gets rendered and updates what I would call Books Online, which used to be MS Docs, and is now MS Learn. Who knows what the next marketing manager will call it.
There’s some consistency, but since there are plenty of people who sign off on changes, and plenty of developers (> 1000) that contribute, it appears that it’s not as consistent as we’d like. Add to that the product has grown, so instead of a long list of functions, we get system functions here (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-functions/system-functions-category-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver16), but only in high level classes, which aren’t always how I’d break them up. We then get T-SQL functions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/functions/functions?view=sql-server-ver16
Anyone can submit a PR. You end up forking the repo into your area, so I have a fork here: https://github.com/way0utwest/sql-docs
I edit things and then submit a PR back, which an MS Learn person gets notified about, they ping the relevant SQL Server dev/PM, which may or may not be new at his/her/their job, and then it gets approved or rejected. I submit most every time I see an issue. A typo, something unclear, something incorrect, etc. I’m actually working on a longer submission for new docs to go-sqlcmd, since the devs have clearly thought –help is enough.
You can try fixing something you see wrong, though wholesale reordering is unlikely to be approved. I find a few small things get approved then a bunch of changes at once.
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Thanks for the additional info Steve. I really wish Microsoft would stop it with the constant re-branding and renaming of their products and services. It can make it very difficult to keep up. Thank God they don’t do this to their flagship office products. Imagine if they kept changing the name of their spreadsheet app every few years.
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Or you can ping me with a doc that needs changing and what, and I’m happy to submit them.
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