On Tue, 2010-11-09 at 00:47 -0500, William L. Thomson Jr. wrote: > On Tue, 2010-11-09 at 00:27 -0500, Tim Holloway wrote: > > > > There's also the consideration that the goal was to get familiar with > > SQL, not a specific graphical query builder/programming system. It's a > > pretty widely held point of view in the circles that I travel in that > > just about the worst possible way to learn a language is by using a GUI. > > +1 > > > We've seen some pretty useless programmers turn out that way, which is > > why when people ask which is the best IDE to learn Java, we answer > > "Windows Notepad", and we're not entirely joking. > > All one needs is syntax highlighting, and maybe code completion for the > lazy/forgetful. The rest is frosting, decorations, candles, etc on the > cake, but should not be relied upon. Much less used at all for learning. > > Sometimes I wonder why I am using an IDE at all. Short of the > integration with build systems, easy ways to compile, run, and test > things. But scripts and other things can suffice just the same ;)
Just to mention, a graphical interactive SQL editor is not really considered an IDE. The tool its part of might be more of a rapid database develop tool, or database IDE. But there is nothing wrong with using a graphical SQL interface. Where you are typing SQL and maybe hitting a button to execute that query, displaying results below, etc. You don't have to learn SQL via command line interactive SQL interfaces like isql, or others. As long as you are typing in SQL and running what you just typed, then your learning. If your dragging and dropping, clicking around, and just typing in names of database, tables, columns, etc using forms/widgets/wizards, your not learning. Can be confusing with SQL since you have to have a way to execute it. Its not compiled per se like most programing. More like shell scripting, or other run after you type to see outcome/result. Once you know SQL, then you can embed it into apps, etc. Or become lazy and use the database IDE to create the database and never type anything in SQL directly. What, you mean I have to type to learn code? -- William L. Thomson Jr. Obsidian-Studios, Inc. http://www.obsidian-studios.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
