Thread

1. Newbie disturbed about lack of CASE tools for PostgreSQL

   Scott Alexander <scott.alexander@mindspring.com> — 1999-06-12T05:22:36Z

   Hello again -
   
   I recently asked people what their favorite CASE tool was for defining
   PostgreSQL databases and have gotten almost no answers - except one
   person who said they don't *use* PostgreSQL for databases over 60 tables
   precisely because of the lack of such support.
   
   I'm new to the Linux world and I'm unsure what kinds of stuff people are
   doing in it. 
   
   One the one hand it sounds like Linux users are highly capable because
   they seem to be more aware of the "inner workings" of their computers
   and code. One the other hand, I sometimes worry that Linux users might
   be less productive than people in other OSes because you might more
   willing to put up with a lack of support tools, maybe as part of some
   kind of do-it-yourself or roll-your-own or command-line-mode ethic.
   
   CASE tools are not a luxury for database design - just because they're
   usually visual and work at a "higher level" (linguistically) than
   implementation-level database design tools (an example of a lower,
   "implementation-level" tool would be what I dread you're all defining
   your databases in - a raw text editor where you key in your SQL DDL
   statements) - just because high-level design tools are often easier and
   more visual to use doesn't mean they're somehow "bad" - it just means
   they're part of a great tradition in mathematics and computer science -
   the development of ever higher-level (ie more compact and expressive)
   languages and the corresponding compilers that translate them down to
   the lower-level (lengthy, repetitive, error-prone, machine-writable)
   languages... like SQL.
   
   I'm not trying to flame here, but I *am* trying to light a fire under
   people... Does the word "data dictionary" mean anything to PostgreSQL
   users? Does this thing exist in some other form than what I'm used to?
   Can anybody out there please tell me their convenient real-world
   methodology for creating PostgreSQL databases? (Everyone who's just
   raw-coding SQL in a text-editor please raise your hands.) 
   
   Everything about Linux and PostgreSQL is so open I'd be very surprised
   if there weren't some kind of simple (ie, visual) tool for defining
   tables, columns and relationships on a Linux machine and then pushing a
   button and having the tool spit out a complete SQL script in the pgsql
   version of your choice defining the database you just "drew". 
   
   I mean, such a data-modeling tool could be written quite quickly in tcl
   it seems like, and distributed as open-source. And since I'm a
   Linux/PostgreSQL/tcl newbie, I'm hoping someone's written something that
   already so I can roll up my sleeves and start defining syntactically
   correct PostgreSQL databases right off the bat. Or is defining a
   Linux-based visual data-modeling and
   SQL-generating(-and-reverse-engineering) tool going to have to be my
   first task as a Linux database programmer? At the very least, is there a
   data-modeling tool that runs under Unix(/Linux?) that permits some
   degree of end-user parameterization over target SQL dialects, so that we
   could just define PostgreSQL as a target dialect for it?
   
   - Scott Alexander
   
   

2. Re: [GENERAL] Newbie disturbed about lack of CASE tools for PostgreSQL

   Piotr Stelmaszyk <kelman@fanthom.math.put.poznan.pl> — 1999-06-13T23:32:10Z

   Saturday, June 12, 1999, 7:22:36 AM, you wrote:
   
   SA> I mean, such a data-modeling tool could be written quite quickly in tcl
   SA> it seems like, and distributed as open-source. And since I'm a
   SA> Linux/PostgreSQL/tcl newbie, I'm hoping someone's written something that
   SA> already so I can roll up my sleeves and start defining syntactically
   SA> correct PostgreSQL databases right off the bat. Or is defining a
   SA> Linux-based visual data-modeling and
   SA> SQL-generating(-and-reverse-engineering) tool going to have to be my
   SA> first task as a Linux database programmer? At the very least, is there a
   SA> data-modeling tool that runs under Unix(/Linux?) that permits some
   SA> degree of end-user parameterization over target SQL dialects, so that we
   SA> could just define PostgreSQL as a target dialect for it?
   
   Well, recently i've found "Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling (TCM)", but
   i guess it's tool for design only (erd) and doesn't support
   sql-generation
   
   main site :
   http://wwwis.cs.utwente.nl:8080/~tcm/
   
   /piotr
   
   /--------------------------------------------------------/
   /- Piotr Stelmaszyk |---- Student of Computer Science ---/
   /------------------ | at Poznan University of Technology /
   /----- mailto:kelman@fanthom.math.put.poznan.pl ---------/
   /----- mailto:kelman@alpha.net.pl -----------------------/
   /--------------------------------------------------------/
   
   
   
   

3. Re: [GENERAL] Newbie disturbed about lack of CASE tools for PostgreSQL

   Kevin Lo <kevlo@hello.com.tw> — 1999-06-15T06:36:52Z

   Scott Alexander wrote:
   
   > Hello again -
   >
   > I recently asked people what their favorite CASE tool was for defining
   > PostgreSQL databases and have gotten almost no answers - except one
   > person who said they don't *use* PostgreSQL for databases over 60 tables
   > precisely because of the lack of such support.
   
   See http://www.ccas.ru/~gurov/ftp/Editors/CASE/Vinsent/
   --
   Kevin Lo                        | Linpus Technologies Inc.
   kevinlo@linpus.com.tw           | http://www.linpus.com.tw