MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <257F49CD-D20C-4AFC-BF0E-EC689C19B4CB@me.com>
References: 
 <CAJikGoAzNzxNd0XUZodH+Fobu05=sbFSxnEzyngzKD=ZFXWq-w@mail.gmail.com>
	<CAB5sPxZSS0ETDHLk=+EuK6inFz_FF52ogSdSHTTEJ2EYJBWG_Q@mail.gmail.com>
	<147DA84F-359C-4382-A360-B6B8E2D7E04F@gmail.com>
	<257F49CD-D20C-4AFC-BF0E-EC689C19B4CB@me.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:57:24 -0700
Message-ID: 
 <CAJikGoBe0W_0FSTPjg7+uXGntpGvvbBeX-d8te_-5iaYmK5Fng@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: new user on mac
From: Scott Swank <scott.swank@gmail.com>
To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Thanks all. I'd tried pgadmin3 and perhaps moved on too quickly. On
2nd look it's better than I'd initially considered.

Cheers,
Scott

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 1:13 AM, Basil Bourque <basil.list@me.com> wrote:
>>> I have a postgres 9.1 database up & running, no problem. Purely in
>>> terms of writing sql (ddl, dml & pg/plsql), what tools are
>>> recommended?
>>>
>>> Coming from an Oracle world, I'm thinking of toad, sql developer, etc.
>>>
>>> 1. psql & text editor of choice (if so, which one?)
>>> 2. navicat
>>> 3. textmate with pgedit
>>> 4. eclipse plugin
>>> 5. other?
>
>>> +1 for pgAdmin3. If you have already used Toad, u would like to check i=
t.
>
> Being new to SQL (but old to other relational databases) and a Mac guy, I=
 have found pgAdmin to work surprisingly well. Surprising because I have a =
knack for breaking/corrupting/crashing nearly every developer tool I start =
using as a newbie. But pgAdmin has worked nearly flawlessly for me. It look=
s goofy from a Mac aesthetics perspective, but it works.
>
> I may have once had an inexplicable glitch, but after restart all was wel=
l. I've only been bitten by 2 recurring bugs:
>
> =95 (Cosmetic) Changing font size for use on projectors in a meeting make=
s fonts bigger, but the rows of the Output Pane in a SQL window fail to gro=
w in height.
>
> =95 (Serious) Tools > Server Configuration > pg_hba.conf has a nasty anti=
-feature. When loading a saved conf file with incorrect syntax (usually I f=
orget to put the slash+number on an IP address such as 127.0.0.1/32), pgAdm=
in parses the file, identifies the flaw, and chooses to ignore the rule by =
not displaying it. Unfortunately, pgAdmin does NOT parse the entries when e=
ntering or saving them. So if you screw up a rule:
> (a) You won't realize you saved incorrect syntax. To the user, it seems t=
he rule you entered simply vanished.
> (b) You can't fix it in pgAdmin. You'll have to gain access to the filesy=
stem as the Postgres superuser (usually that's the Unix user 'postgres'), a=
nd edit the file. This is not easy to do as a Mac GUI user.
> This issue has been acknowledged in the mailing lists.
>
> But otherwise, pgAdmin has served me well for connecting to the Postgres =
server, creating databases, creating tables, creating columns, creating a f=
ew initial rows of data, editing some field values, and so on.
>
> When first starting out creating tables, I used the GUI dialogs in pgAdmi=
n. Nowadays I take advantage of the feature where pgAdmin generates and sho=
ws you the SQL that would re-create the table on which you've clicked. When=
 creating a new table, I copy the SQL from a similar table, paste into a te=
xt editor, and edit appropriately. Then I paste the SQL back into a SQL win=
dow in pgAdmin to execute.
>
> My usual choice in text editors is TextMate, running the surprisingly pro=
ductive "Zenburnesque" Fonts & Color scheme in Preferences, where you can f=
orce the text to be interpreted as SQL without bothering to save the file b=
y choosing "SQL" from the popup at the window's bottom frame.
>
> Other good text editors include JEdit (Java-based, free-of-cost), TextWra=
ngler (free of cost), and BBEdit.
> http://www.jedit.org/
> http://www.textwrangler.com/products/textwrangler/
> TextWrangler's commercial big-brother BBEdit is also a popular text-edito=
r on Mac OS X.
> http://www.textwrangler.com/products/bbedit/
>
> Other Java-based IDEs are free-of-cost, run well on Mac OS X, and include=
 SQL editing tools: IntelliJ, NetBeans, Eclipse.
>
> There are many other SQL tools that run on Mac OS X, especially the Java-=
based tools using JDBC. I've not tried them yet as pgAdmin is sufficient fo=
r now.
>
> =3D=3D Caution =3D=3D
>
> I'm not too clear on Postgres' defaults when installing Postgres, and whe=
n creating a new database. But I believe Postgres defaults to a character s=
et appropriate to the platform. I explicitly choose UTF-8 for both, rather =
than depend on some mysterious default. The docs are not clear about this, =
so I'm not sure about the best course of action.
>
> Other than this character set issue, one tip I've learned from experts is=
 to trust the default settings of both Postgres and pgAdmin.
>
> =3D=3D Another Caution =3D=3D
>
> Most text editors and IDEs on the Mac, both native and Java, have a tende=
ncy to default:
>
> =95 The character set to MacRoman.
> =A0You may want to change the default to UTF-8.
>
> =95 The newline/end-of-line to CarriageReturn.
> =A0You may want to change the default to Linefeed for the Unix convention=
.
>
> Note that some tools do not change the character-set or newline of an exi=
sting file, or require that you choose a menu item to make the change happe=
n.
>
> --Basil Bourque
> --
> Sent via pgsql-sql mailing list (pgsql-sql@postgresql.org)
> To make changes to your subscription:
> http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-sql
>