Diamond Notes

I am a command-line guy.  I have been for a long time.  Almost everything I need to do with MySQL I can do from the command line.  This is a good thing.  For one thing, it makes it easy to script things.   However, that being said, there is at least one area that I need a GUI.  That is for creating charts of schema.  For some reason it makes it easy for the developers if they can see a pretty picture of the the database ;)  I don’t understand but  …. that is what they want.

I have tried out several programs.  I don’t like be negative, so let’s just say that some of them had short-comings.  The most recent program I checked out, which has been around for quite some time,  has a decent schema design section.  However, it CAN’T PRINT!!  I even sent an email to support and they answered and said no..but that is coming in the “near future”.  Hmmm….seems pretty important to me.

Fortunately, when I evaluated the newest version of the Workbench program from MySQL AB, I didn’t have these problems.  Enough ink has been spilled about the differences between the free version of the Workbench and the Standard Edition (SE).  I have looked at both.  I will happily pay the price of the license (I believe it’s going to be $100 or less although I can’t put my hands on an exact price right now) for the ability to perform everything easily.  It isn’t too expensive considering how it makes things easier.  And how much is your time worth?  If you are getting paid to work on MySQL servers this should not even be a question.  And yes, I have imported table schema from one of my databases and could even print it out.

Evaluate it for yourself.  Downloads are available from here: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/5.0.html

If you wish to participate in the SE beta program send an email to “workbench” @ “mysql.com”.