On Mon, 7 May 2001 richard@tortoise.demon.co.uk wrote:
Do you know of any (cross-platform and free, not asking a lot!) tools for producing ER diagrams so the discussion could get more definite? I have never used any such tool, other than whats built into Access, because I have never had to discuss overall database structure with anyone other than myself.
If you mean the drag-and-drop table relationships bit of Access (do they call it "Query builder", or am I imagining that bit?), then you can use StarBase instead. It's cross-platform and verging on the free. Dia can (AFAIK) produce ER diagrams, and you can get utilities that will use them to generate SQL. Dia is free, but I'm not sure how cross-platform it is.
Can you call the procedures other than via a trigger?
I would imagine so.
Also, what language would you write procedures in? Looking at the postgresql pages, which I referenced earlier, it seems quite a low level task, where you connect it so some other language of your choice, C being given there as an example. My C programming does not extend a great deal further than Hello World. The time it would take to be productive on a given system is important. I have to say that I have never written a line of Interbase procedure code either.
You can write procedures in at least SQL, Perl and Tcl.
Are there visual tools for interacting with a postgresql backend, again x platform? Interbase has several.
Well, you can use ODBC to connect to the database, in which case you can use GUI tools such as StarBase or Access. Michael