I do not understand the point of this Editorial. I do not know anything about the the GUI tools in SSMS for creating tables, but I am familiar with both MS Access and ERwin. For SQL Server databases, I always model database changes in the ERwin file first. I then use ERwin to generate the SQL code which I run in SSMS when appropriate.

Using ERwin, a GUI tool for creating tables if ever there was one, helps me make sure I use consistent code for creating tables. The assistance is huge, and I can't imagine wanting to waste time writing all that code by hand when ERwin will do it for me. I get to focus on the important things like table and join designs. I don't have to worry about whether certain 'code' fields are typically varchar(10) or was that 11? Did I spell that field name correctly? And did I remember to index the foreign key? Etc.

Then there is the documentation. I can write tons of documentation for individual tables and fields in ERwin. Again, I can't imagine putting that documentation only in text files which I then run in SSMS.

All of that assistance from ERwin was vital when I was a newbie. I would have made a ton of mistakes in my database designs had I not had ERwin available when I first started working with databases. I would go so far to say that ERwin was partly a career maker for me. How could a well designed GUI tool for making tables *not* help a beginner? For one thing, you can design all sorts of table and have the tool generate the SQL for those tables. It is how one can learn to write good CREATE TABLE statements.

While I can easily understand finding serious fault with a poorly designed GUI tool, I can't figure out why anyone would put down all GUI tools on principle--especially for beginners. It doesn't make any sense to me.