Voice of the DBA

Tag: tools

  • Tool Limits

    In many jobs, there are a variety of tools that people use on a regular basis. Chefs buy knives, mechanics buy tools, doctors buy stethoscopes, etc. While many of us in technology don’t always have to buy tools, some of us certainly do. When there is value and it makes sense, many of us have purchased IDEs or add-ins or a utility that makes our work easier.

    Our tools are different than physical ones. We need a place to install them, but we often have employer-owned workstations, which complicates matters with licensing and rights to install. Bringing tools with you, or taking them with you, is often a strange situation, especially as our tools often need “privileges” to connect to other systems, which may be a problem for many employers.

    Many organizations do provide some tools, and we can certainly build others. We know how to write scripts, utilities, code generators, and more. We may get an IDE or some other commercial tool, which often ensures that all team members work in the same manner, though we may find a need to extend or configure how it works. My employer, Redgate Software, builds tools like this for database developers, and we strive to ensure that our tools make your job easier, and we try to ensure you can extend or integrate our tools into your work.

    Forgetting the hassles of purchase and installs, today I’m wondering what you think about the tool you do use. What tools do you use, and what are the limitations or hassles you find? Are there issues with your tools that inhibit productivity? These might be ones someone in your organization has written, or those they’ve purchased. Or maybe you’ve extended some tools to work in a different way and you’re proud of your work. Let us know about how tools might dramatically help or inhibit your efficiency.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Coding Tips

    I really like Visual Studio Code. The more I use it, the more I get comfortable in it, and the more I appreciate the design and flow of using the editor. I didn’t feel that way early on, preferring the comfort of Visual Studio, but now I most often use VS Code.

    The other day I saw an article from one of the PMs for the product, with a number of tips and tricks. I like some of these, and have already found a few to be handy in my work. I’ve even started to search out a few more of these, and found this repo with items in it.

    This reminds me of a few articles at SQLServerCentral on SSMS (tips, tricks). I’ve written a bit on Azure Data Studio and git, often to help cement some skills in my mind, as much as to help you learn more.

    I’m sure many of you have your own tips and tricks today, for both data platform tools and others, so I’m asking you to share a few in the comments. If you have a large collection of tips, on tools or just how to write code, write us an article. I’m sure others would love to know how to be more productive.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #135 – Awesome Tools

    tsql2sday150x150It’s blog party week for T-SQL Tuesday, and I think this is a good choice for a topic. The host this month is Mikey Bronowski, and his invitation is on tools. I work for a tools vendor, and I’ve used a lot of them in my life, so I want to share what I think in 2021. I’ll also say that Mikey has a good list in his invitation of what he uses. I especially like his use of PoSh things and Greenshot.

    I’ve going to tackle this in a couple ways as I really have two parts of my job here, so I’ll look at tech tools and then productivity tools.

    Technical Tools

    I work for Redgate Software, so I use the Redgate Toolbelt a lot, as well as some of the Deploy tools. Specifically for me, I use these every week:

    • SQL Prompt – can’t live without it, and struggle to write t-sql when this isn’t working.
    • SQL Source Control / SQL Change Automation – I use these regularly, and while I tend to prefer SQL Source Control for many tasks, I love migrations. Slowly, I am moving to Flyway for some things, as I think this is our future.
    • SQL Clone / SQL Provision – I copy and mask databases regularly. This makes creating test copies quick and easy.

    Outside of Redgate, I really like VS Code for lots of editing, whether C#, Python, or PowerShell. I’ve been trying to use Azure Data Studio more, but I just prefer VS Code. No real good reason here. I have Sublime Text as well, which I use for text/html/markdown, but I think I am slowly going to move to VS Code for more, and I might not install Sublime on my next machine.

    I still live in SSMS most of the time, rarely in VS, but sometimes. However, as I do more DevOps stuff, I also have a few other major tools that I use every day and continue to learn about:

    1. git – I do a lot of command line stuff, and continue to get better, even with the VSCode client. I used GitHub and AzDO for repos, but lots of basic git stuff is important for my work
    2. Azure DevOps – I used other tools, but my goto, and the one I used for SQLMemorial.org, is Azure DevOps
    3. Chocolatey – package manager and install tool for Windows. This let me set up a machine in an hour or so, as opposed to a day.
    4. Docker – I use containers more and more rather than installing software.

    I may use other items, like tsqlt, but these are the big tools that help me get code written.

    Productivity Tools

    More of my job is writing related. I essentially run a newspaper at SQLServerCentral, and I produce a lot of content. As a result, I have some tools that make that easier, and help me coordinate with others.

    Here’s a list with a few comments:

    1. Evernote – I subscribe and use this to keep random notes for editorials and work things. I drop notes in here from meetings. I also have various items for my personal life, like logging maintenance on vehicles, license plates, recipes for cooking, and more. Worth my $$$. There are other good note apps, but I’ve been living on Evernote for 6-7 years, so no one has made a good case for my to switch
    2. DropBox/OneDrive – I sync stuff between machines and my phone. I’ve used DropBox for years, but their changes on mobile, which don’t make files stored and available, have me considering a fulltime move to OneDrive. A sync tool is important. Pick any one, but use it.
    3. Password Safe – Everyone needs a password manager. I’ve had this one since its release in 2002. free, secure, works across platforms, I see no reason to change. Use something here.
    4. Greenshot – I’ve tried various screen capture tools, but this one is lightweight, stable, and easily installed.
    5. Live Writer – I use the open source project for blogging. A drive sync tools keeps drafts on all machines.
    6. Camtasia – While there are lots of ways to capture screen video, Camtasia just works for me. Not the best, but simple enough and stable enough for building presentations and other recordings of my screen. I can record something quickly, and then edit a video or animated gif in minutes.

    While I certainly use Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), those are less of my day than these tools. I usually outline and build some stuff in Evernote before it goes into PPT. I do a little spreadsheet work, and some Power BI, but I’m really productive with these tools.

    The last tool I lightly mention is Spotify. I love music, and I appreciate having it in the background sometimes. My wife prefers Pandora, but whatever helps get you in a good mood, use it.

    My advice, try a few things, learn how one works well, and get better at it.

  • Your Favorite IDE

    SSMS is, well, it’s what we mostly have from Microsoft. It’s been around a long time, but it is getting regularly released. There are new versions about every quarter, and there are bug fixes and minor enhancements. Azure Data Studio appears to be where Microsoft would like most of us to move, but I, and many others, somewhat resist this because it’s not quite as full featured as we’d like.

    Recently I was watching one of Brent Ozar’s Ask Me Anything recordings, and some people asked about SSMS and other IDEs. I think Brent is mostly an SSMS fan, and deals with issues, but he mentioned some other IDEs, like DataGrip.

    I’ve never used that one, but I used to use RapidSQL when it was Embarkadero, mostly because I had offline editing. Once Microsoft added that, I didn’t see a reason to buy it anymore. At Redgate, we’ve been asked to produce an IDE, but that’s a ton of work for limited commercial appeal. At least, that’s been what I think.

    Today, I’m curious. What’s your favorite IDE to work with SQL Server, or maybe the Microsoft data platform? I’d like to know what you use for SQL Server, but I’d also be curious what you use for other code. PoSh, C#, anything else. Are you a Visual Studio person? Do you like VS Code, and if so, is ADS a complement for databases or do you prefer SSMS?

    Let me know. Maybe you’ll convince me to try another editor.

    Steve Jones