Old Dog Learns New Tricks...

One of the things I have discovered about myself, as I get older, is that I do not like change.

Being a software developer, this is a bad thing. In fact, in most cases I overcome this predisposition to not change, and embrace the new tools or technology. One area in which I have found this difficult is in the area of tools for managing SQL Server. Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer for SQL Server 2000 are tools I spent the great bulk of my time with for a number of projects.

Then, along comes SQL Server 2005, a release that changed the tools more than they have been changed in a number of releases. I understood that SQL Server Management Studio was a big improvement in a lot of ways - most specifically in that it was not a modal application, meaning you could have multiple stored procedures or views open for editing at one time and easily switch from one tho the other. That said, I still kept the 2000 tools around so that I could use them. I used them when I just could not find the similar function in SQL Server Management Studio.

I went to a talk here at Tech Ed about SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), and became aware of some new features that will likely change my point of view. One feature that will make whatever learning I need to do worthwhile is the ability to script out what the tool is doing. Creating a database? You can have SSMS script out what you are about to do. The scripting ability applies to almost anything you are doing. While I often will just type in the SQL when I need to have it as a script (for instance, when I need to send a script to a client), sometimes using SSMS and then scripting out the operations will be quicker and cleaner.

So, I expect I will try to learn where everything is in SSMS and use it almost exclusively, though I will keep the 2000 tools around, at least until that SQL Server 7 server at one of my cllient sites is retired...

Posted by Douglas Reilly at 01:07 PM  Permalink