April 9, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Hey all,
I need advice on what is a good Text Editor to use for TSQL development.
I know there are tons out there, TextPad, UltraEdit, Notpad++, etc. But most of those seem to be more geared toward regular coding, and not many have extensions for SQL 2005, they tend to stop at SQL 2000 or earlier.
I know that its as much a personal preference as functionality, but i would like to hear some opinions of one app over others.
Basically what i will need this for is as stated, TSQL development in a SQL 2005 and future versions of the MS SQL platform.
I will also need something that will work well with Powershell. This is not a necessity but it would be nice to have as I need to start learning.
Anyway your thoughs and opinions are appreciated.
April 9, 2008 at 12:12 pm
April 9, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I use it for now, but i want something that opens faster and has some of the nice text editor features.
Basically I want the best of both worlds.
I know this may be asking a lot but I really hate using more then one editor unless I truly have to and I hate that it bogs down my system a bit when i have it opened.
April 9, 2008 at 12:24 pm
You might give RedGate's Prompt a try. Or ApexSQL Edit. They're both built for coding SQL.
Anything more powerful than Notepad will almost certainly cost some system resources, but I can't say I've had it matter for me.
Right now, I'm running SQL Server Dev, the client for Norton AV Enterprise, a few other background/services, Outlook 2003, IE 7, and Management Studio, but not running any local queries or jobs, and I'm at 2% CPU (Pentium D), and 2.5 Gig RAM (with SQL Server taking 1.7 of that) (out of 3.5 Gig available). Management Studio is more resource-hungry than Query Analyzer, and takes longer to fire up, but it's not that big a deal to me.
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April 9, 2008 at 12:29 pm
What features are you looking for? If all you want is intellisense, use SQL Prompt as G2 suggested.
Are you saying that having Management Studios open bogs down your system? How so? Simply having it open should not have any effect on system performance.
April 9, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I agree, I have been using the management studio, and the main reason why i asked about some of the other editors out there is that I would like to be able to use them to replace notpad as well and I do need to do some powershell coding in the near future, so I would not like to be bound by SQL only editors. I will try the ones mentioned and if i must I will use an editor made extensively for SQL and then use on of the other 3rd party editors for other coding projects.
April 9, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Mainly formatting and syntax highlighting are key.
Simply having it open does not really do much to my system, but after a while my system does start to slowdown, and every bit of RAM is necessary. I have a lot of things on my system, since I do a lot of IT, and Database work. I wish the company got me a second system so that i can seperate DBA and IT/Net Admin.
April 9, 2008 at 12:57 pm
April 9, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I have been playing with other editors and mostlikely i will stick with Notepad++ for all my text editing needs, and stick with Management studio, since i doubt my company will pay 200 for SQL Prompt.
I hate the delay it takes to open up, especially when i simply want to check out a script or a procedure i have in file.
April 9, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Because we use DBPro (aka DataDude) I do a lot of TSQL programming in Visual Studio. It's not terribly good, but the integration with TFS & DBPro makes it necessary.
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April 9, 2008 at 2:39 pm
If you want to go freeware/shareware, you might consider taking a look at Crimson Editor. It has a customizable markup language (so it knows what to highlight, keywords, etc...). It has a LOT of built-in languages it can understand, among which T-SQL and PowerShell (although PowerShell is a "custom" template you need to add as I recall).
It's not intellisense, but not bad for a basic markup, type and validate basic syntax kind of app.
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April 9, 2008 at 2:45 pm
SQLProgrammer is also very good to use, specially when you know not or forget the syntax of commands or store procedures.
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April 9, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Thanks for all the responeseses guys.
For now I am going to give Management studio another go, do you guys have any sites with some guides on all the different configurations for it so that i can play and customize it to my needs?
April 10, 2008 at 3:02 am
I use PSPad as replacement of notepad. It is better than Notepad++ in my opinion. Works very well and supports incremental search, the feature I use a lot.
Piotr
...and your only reply is slàinte mhath
April 11, 2008 at 8:24 am
Notepad is equivalent to a "rock and a chisel". Almost as bad as Vi on UNIX.
Give KEDIT (http://www.kedit.com/) a try. It's a general purpose text editor for all sorts of file types that I've been using for years. Supports macros, column editing (one of my favorite features), is fast, can handle large files, low memory footprint, etc. etc. While it doesn't have IntelliSense, it can be configured to understand the nuances of each language (color coding, comments, matching parens, braces, etc.).
Best feature of all: It runs under a portable license. So buy your own copy and use it at work.
Evaluation copies are available at their web site.
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