POSTGRESQL TOOLS FOR THE VISUALLY INCLINED
In the case of PostgreSQL, I’ve quickly come to the conclusion that bad tooling is one of the main reasons the uptake is so much more difficult and convoluted coming from the SQL Server community. Even the devs I’m currently working with that have no specific affinity for databases at all recognize that PostgreSQL just feels like more of a black box then the limited experience they had previously with SQL Server.
Let me get right to it: jumping from SQL Server to PostgreSQL is much morethan changing a tool. PostgreSQL was built on Unix, with Unix in mind as the platform of choice, and typically runs best when it’s sitting on some type of Unix box. The Unix world has a pretty specific idiom for how to go about things and it certainly isn’t visual!
As someone who learned to code visually, I had to learn what each icon meant and the visual cues for what happens where. I came to understand property pains, the lines under the text of a button that described shortcuts, and the idiomatic layout of each form. Executing a command meant pressing a button.
In the Unix world you write out that command. The check boxes and dialogs are replaced by option flags and arguments. You install the tools you need and then look for the binaries that help you do a thing, then you interrogate them for help, typically using a
--helpcommand (or just plainhelp).The same is true for PostgreSQL. This is the thing that I think was stumping Ryan. He’s searching for visual tooling in a world that embraces a completely different idiom. It’s like going to Paris and disliking it (and France) because the barbecue is horrible.
I’m using Mac’s Terminal app but you can use any shell you like, including Powershell and the Windows command line. I would strongly urge you, however, to crack open a Linux VM or Docker to get the “flavor” of working with PostgreSQL. You can, indeed, find barbecue in Paris but it might help to explore the local cuisine.