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I guess it's a good thing I didn't do the project I was thinking about. I observed the fact that SQL Server had no management tool that was cross-platform, and

I guess it's a good thing I didn't do the project I was thinking about. I observed the fact that SQL Server had no management tool that was cross-platform, and thought perhaps I would build such a thing. Nice work Microsoft! On a side-note, I'd love to see an even more minimalist stripped-down, read-mostly query/tabular result only (with pivot tables) tool, which had some local columnar storage caching/query engine, and simple import/export to common file formats as well. A simple "SQL notebook" that was cross platform, if you will, but worked more like a traditional query tool. And not embedded in MS Excel, like PowerQuery or PowerPivot (although it's powerful!). Something lighter weight than BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, etc., definitely lighter weight than tools such as SSMS, DBeaver, SQuirrel, etc. - not for administrative use. I've seen a few applications that are coming close listed on HN lately, but would be nice to have something as pretty as this and which is open source. Perhaps a fork with the admin features stripped out, some additional plumbing added, and read-only connections, I'm not sure. Will have to think about it. Main use case is data scientists / data analysts / SQL power users.

cbcoutinho 9y ago
I'm also looking for a tool like this. I think plot.ly's new Falcon tool comes close to barebones sql + plotting. [0] I love reading blog posts on small projects hooking up sql and simple data analysis - check out this small Flask/sql/d3 app I found earlier [1]. I'm not sure how closer a stripped down product can come to something like this. I guess you could wrap everything into an electron app, but maybe I think it would then be overkill for what I've been looking for. [0]: https://plot.ly/free-sql-client-download/ https://plot.ly/free-sql-client-download/ [1]: http://www.datasciencebytes.com/bytes/2015/03/07/a-d3js-plot-powered-by-a-sql-database/ http://www.datasciencebytes.com/bytes/2015/03/07/a-d3js-plot...
rahilsondhi 9y ago
Excuse me for my second plug this week, but we've built almost exactly what you're describing over at PopSQL (https://popsql.io https://popsql.io).
- sixdimensional 9y ago
  So that's pretty cool,thanks for sharing it, but tying it to a cloud SaaS model isn't as valuable (for me). I like the simple clean look of your UI. Your idea to allow shared editing is pretty cool :)
j_s 9y ago
These discussions have some options: Google Data Studio | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15446049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15446049 (Oct 2017, 228 comments) PopSQL – Modern, collaborative SQL editor for your team | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15377339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15377339 (Oct 2017, 49 comments) Franchise – An Open-Source SQL Notebook | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15303833 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15303833 (Sep 2017, 63 comments)
- FuriouslyAdrift 9y ago
  DBeaver... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBeaver https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBeaver
  - sixdimensional 9y ago
    DBeaver is my favorite open source database admin tool. But it is a full admin tool with way too much UI, not the query only type use case.
Osiris 9y ago
DataGrip by JetBrains is cross-platform and supports a large variety of database servers.
- sixdimensional 9y ago
  It's a nice tool, but is a full admin use case- I'm looking for a simpler query only situation. I think I tested this actually when it was codenamed 0xDBE.
samgaw 9y ago
Have you looked at Metabase? http://www.metabase.com http://www.metabase.com
- sixdimensional 9y ago
  Yes, thoroughly. It's a great project, my only regret is it would be nice to have a purely desktop based front-end utility. Metabase comes close in the fact that you can run one single JAR and be up and running, so it's close for sure. Maybe I am old school, but I think part of my gripe is due to the state of flux of merging traditional desktop UI and web or browser tech. For ordinary desktop users, running a JAR file so they can run a local server app in a browser seems too technical still. I guess I'm saying, partially it's the packaging for end users who want to run independently like a standalone application which is the issue. But yes, Metabase is great and the team working on it is doing a great job.
lowkeyokay 9y ago
As for cross-platform, VS Code has a plugin for SQL Server. It doesn't provide all the graphical management tools that SSMS does but all the stored procedures are available, naturally. If you're on a Mac, i suggest [1] Hankinsoft's SQL Studio. I've been using it daily for a couple of years. It's very light weight and supports most db's. It has some neat functions too; like marking rows and columns, right click and get insert statements. It's not free, but for me, it has been well worth the price. If you want something for quick data analysis, I would suggest looking into queryStorm [2]. It was on HN's front page [3] last week, but for it's C# capabilities. It started as as SQL query tool for excel. I have yet to try it but it seems very useful and fast. Although I don't think it has any column store caching. [1] http://www.hankinsoft.com http://www.hankinsoft.com [2] https://querystorm.com https://querystorm.com [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030
- wluu 9y ago
  The VS Code plugin and SQL Operations Studio both use the SQL Tools API Service[1]. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/sqltoolsservice https://github.com/Microsoft/sqltoolsservice
- sixdimensional 9y ago
  QueryStorm looks cool and appears to use SQLite for local joins on the desktop, which gets you pretty far (column store would probably get you further). My only gripe here is being tied to Excel and potentially what looks like limited data source support.

cbcoutinho 9y ago

I'm also looking for a tool like this. I think plot.ly's new Falcon tool comes close to barebones sql + plotting. [0] I love reading blog posts on small projects hooking up sql and simple data analysis - check out this small Flask/sql/d3 app I found earlier [1]. I'm not sure how closer a stripped down product can come to something like this. I guess you could wrap everything into an electron app, but maybe I think it would then be overkill for what I've been looking for. [0]: https://plot.ly/free-sql-client-download/ https://plot.ly/free-sql-client-download/ [1]: http://www.datasciencebytes.com/bytes/2015/03/07/a-d3js-plot-powered-by-a-sql-database/ http://www.datasciencebytes.com/bytes/2015/03/07/a-d3js-plot...

rahilsondhi 9y ago

Excuse me for my second plug this week, but we've built almost exactly what you're describing over at PopSQL (https://popsql.io https://popsql.io).

sixdimensional 9y ago
So that's pretty cool,thanks for sharing it, but tying it to a cloud SaaS model isn't as valuable (for me). I like the simple clean look of your UI. Your idea to allow shared editing is pretty cool :)

j_s 9y ago

These discussions have some options: Google Data Studio | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15446049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15446049 (Oct 2017, 228 comments) PopSQL – Modern, collaborative SQL editor for your team | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15377339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15377339 (Oct 2017, 49 comments) Franchise – An Open-Source SQL Notebook | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15303833 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15303833 (Sep 2017, 63 comments)

FuriouslyAdrift 9y ago
DBeaver... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBeaver https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBeaver
- sixdimensional 9y ago
  DBeaver is my favorite open source database admin tool. But it is a full admin tool with way too much UI, not the query only type use case.

Osiris 9y ago

DataGrip by JetBrains is cross-platform and supports a large variety of database servers.

sixdimensional 9y ago
It's a nice tool, but is a full admin use case- I'm looking for a simpler query only situation. I think I tested this actually when it was codenamed 0xDBE.

samgaw 9y ago

Have you looked at Metabase? http://www.metabase.com http://www.metabase.com

sixdimensional 9y ago
Yes, thoroughly. It's a great project, my only regret is it would be nice to have a purely desktop based front-end utility. Metabase comes close in the fact that you can run one single JAR and be up and running, so it's close for sure. Maybe I am old school, but I think part of my gripe is due to the state of flux of merging traditional desktop UI and web or browser tech. For ordinary desktop users, running a JAR file so they can run a local server app in a browser seems too technical still. I guess I'm saying, partially it's the packaging for end users who want to run independently like a standalone application which is the issue. But yes, Metabase is great and the team working on it is doing a great job.

lowkeyokay 9y ago

As for cross-platform, VS Code has a plugin for SQL Server. It doesn't provide all the graphical management tools that SSMS does but all the stored procedures are available, naturally. If you're on a Mac, i suggest [1] Hankinsoft's SQL Studio. I've been using it daily for a couple of years. It's very light weight and supports most db's. It has some neat functions too; like marking rows and columns, right click and get insert statements. It's not free, but for me, it has been well worth the price. If you want something for quick data analysis, I would suggest looking into queryStorm [2]. It was on HN's front page [3] last week, but for it's C# capabilities. It started as as SQL query tool for excel. I have yet to try it but it seems very useful and fast. Although I don't think it has any column store caching. [1] http://www.hankinsoft.com http://www.hankinsoft.com [2] https://querystorm.com https://querystorm.com [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15670030

wluu 9y ago
The VS Code plugin and SQL Operations Studio both use the SQL Tools API Service[1]. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/sqltoolsservice https://github.com/Microsoft/sqltoolsservice
sixdimensional 9y ago
QueryStorm looks cool and appears to use SQLite for local joins on the desktop, which gets you pretty far (column store would probably get you further). My only gripe here is being tied to Excel and potentially what looks like limited data source support.