I am a developer and I most often use Sqlserver. The most common tool for working with Sqlserver is Sqlserver management studio and it does it’s job; which happens to be everything. Why not create a (relational) database tool targeted towards developers?

Things I normally don’t do

Now, as a developer I normally touch security at the beginning or end of a project. I usual handle just one of a couple of databases (database in sqlserver lingua, I believe it is called schema in Oracle) at a time. Space allocation is only used when doing backup and restore to create new or roll back a database. I have, unfortunately, never touched anything like sharding, replication, availability or other beardy stuff.

Things I normally do

I write queries, lots of queries. Depending on project I write stored procedures and triggers. I have also dealt with having DLLs inside Sqlserver. I do a lot of comparing schema and data with other databases.

What I want

I have a need for an IDE that leaves out all stuff I don’t or seldom use; whenever I need to dabble with security I can fire up Sqlserver management studio.

• awesome intelligence/typeahead/whateveryoucallit in the query editor. Management studios intellisense has become better but I still lack functionality I get with Sqlprompt by Redgate.  There are semi graphical tools for aiding query writing but I haven’t taken a serious stab at using them; I should.
• relations should be visible. When I work with a table I’d like to have indices, triggers and stored procedures in close vicinity, not through an “object explorer” tool window and a deep drill down tree. Say you are writing “select * from User” or selecting the User table in a list somewhere. Why not have a window, toolbar or menu automatically populate with depending tables, triggers and stored procedures?
• drill down possibility. Way to often I write a query and another and another just to find out where data comes from or vice verse. Without spending any time thinking and designing I am visualizing that when a row, say of a User, is found, one can with a click or key stroke get all Roles related to said User through the UserRoles table. Another example is User-> Order-> OrderItem-> Currency-> Country-> Company-> User.
• copy/paste update of table data. I also would like conversion of such copy or paste to a query to run on another instance.

What I want stuff that is really nice-to-have

• global search. I sometimes find a guid or a part of a string that has fled its sanctuary and need to find where in the database it originates. Somewhere I have a stored procedure for this but I’d like to have it built in to the tool and with more intelligence like searching for guids in proper fields and asking before doing a free text search in a million rows table.
• fast backup and restore. To take a temporary backup before doing a big or dangerous change. Then to restore said backup with ease. The Management studio dialogue for this is big, hard to use and error prone. By and by I need to create a copy of a database, say for branching a project, and that can too be made to be done with ease.
• no install. I manipulate data in production and don’t want to have to install anything; an xcopy should be enough.

A diaper that you don’t have to sniff or visually check for it’s status.

In summertime it is often easy to grab the kid and tear down the pants to check whether a change is needed our not. In winter it is not.

With today’s modern diapers it can be hard to tell if they are filled with pee or not, they always feel dry. I have tried diapers with “wetness visualization”, like ink on wet paper, but it didn’t do the trick; when the diaper’s “ink” was visible it was easy to check the inside of the diaper too.

Wouldn’t it be good to easily see which layer you are working in in your IDE?  When working in a multi layer environment one often has a class named Customer in every layer which makes for some document switching before finding the right one.  Add an icon in a corner or a slightly tinted background.

When working with multiple databases at once in a query tool it is often a hassle to keep the windows of the different databases apart.  Often one has two servers QA and Production with identical (or similar) database names.  It is very important to not update the wrong one.
Couldn’t one have a slightly tinted background that shows where one is?

Update:
There is an extension that can colour the tabs but it doesn’t give the full visual  clue I am looking for.

There is a good dataset visualiser in Visual studio.

But if one uses lists one is out of luck. I have tried creating one, but failed either of lack of competence or lack of time.

There might be a way to export a list to a datatable and work from there but strange enough I haven’t tried.

Create a debug visualiser for generic lists in Visual studio.