Intro, compliments, and request.

[Ingo J]

Hi!

I just joined the forum, although I have been using PL/SQL daily for several years. PL/SQL developer is one of the best programs I have ever used in my 20 odd years in IT. Whenever I see a co-worker struggling with SQL-Worksheet (or even worse, SQL Plus), I always encourage them to request a copy of PL/SQL.

I love the attention to details and the emphasis on usability. One of these details that really tickles me are how PL/SQL remembers the location of the last file you opened/saved, for EACH type of file (SQL, command etc). Very cool!

Another great feature is the drag and drop of column names. The special paste in Java format is really nifty. The beautifier instantly makes those monster multipage queries so much easier to debug.

The only area where I find PL/SQL less intuitive and easy to use is with the edit - search and replace operations, in particular in conjuction with selected text. It always seems to take me 2 or 3 trys to get the right menu choice for what I want to do. After an initial bad experience in the heat of meeting a deadline, I adopted the habit of copying to TextPad, doing my search and replace, and then pasting back into PL/SQL. I suppose I should take the time to learn the PL/SQL equivalents, but hey, I'm impatient and lazy (a typical programmer?)

I was wondering if you have any plans for integration with Rational ClearCase source control? In the meantime, any chance of allowing a file to be checked out (ie remove read-only attribute) without having to close it and re-open it in PL/SQL to make it modifiable?

Keep up the great work!

 

[Marco Kalter]

Thanks for the compliments, that's always nice to read .

We are rewriting search (and repace) functionality for 6.1, so that you can search across multiple windows and keep a dockable search pane, so hopefully we can also make it more intuitive.

About ClearCase: we have a VCS Plug-In available that can be used with any version control system that has a complete SCC interface implementation. There were some problems with ClearCase in the past, and some bugs logged at Rational concerning their SCC implementation. I'm not sure how the current ClearCase version works out, you could give the VCS Plug-In a try.

 

[ScottMattes]

A new search?! Will I have any need for my FindAll plugin after that?

 

[Marco Kalter]

Probably not. Sorry...

 

[BWendling]

Please remember to change PLSD search/replace functionality to standard behaviour:

1. After hitting Replace, automatically advance to the next searched item.

2. When displaying a searched item (which would be outside the current window), scroll lines/columns further to center of the window. This way, it's easier for the user to view the context.

 

[Marco Kalter]

Okay

 

[William Robertson]

Ingo,

You can also use "Tools > Configure Tools" to set up an external editor of your choice. I have an "Edit with Vim" option (mapped to Alt-V in key config).

 

[Ingo J]

William, thanks for your suggestion, I have now set up my favorite text editor (TextPad).