Musings from The Software Underground

Today marks the release of the first beta version of SQLGrinder 2, the completely-rewritten version of our database development tool. Wow, what a long road this has been:

Advenio, LLC, today announced SQLGrinder version 2, an all new version of their popular database development environment for Mac OS X.

Currently in beta testing, this new version has been completely rewritten from the ground up and features many new and improved features including faster overall performance, multiple editor and result set history buffers, code completion using database keywords and table, column and procedure names, client-side result set searching and sorting, sleep detection, table add, drop and truncate functionality, improved data import and export and much more.

Pricing and availability for SQLGrinder 2

Pricing for the new version has been set at $59. During the beta period however, SQLGrinder 2 can be purchased for the current price of $49.95 with purchasers receiving a free upgrade to the final version once available. Owners of the current version can purchase an upgrade for only $19 by sending their current registration information to upgrades@sqlgrinder.com.

SQLGrinder 2 for Mac OS X is currently available for a limited time as an unlimited beta version.

The beta of SQLGrinder 2 can be downloaded from the Advenio web site at: http://www.advenio.com/sqlgrinder/download.

As current users and followers of the product know, this has been in the works for quite some time. Up until about 3 months ago, it was actually about 80% done, and had been at that point for some time. Why the delay? Other products, other commitments, etc. served to keep pushing the last 20% back. Now that I'm back doing Mac development and ONLY Mac development again, it was finally possible to finish all the major features and get the first beta out the door.

So, just to address some obvious questions:

• How long will the beta period last? Well, it will last as long as it needs to. SQLGrinder 2 has only so far been tested with Sybase, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and some Java databases like Mckoi and HSQL, but the testing has been far from extensive at this point, so there are still things that need to be shaken out, I'm sure.


• Why the price increase to $59 from $49.95? Full time Mac development costs money, and the only place that money comes from is sales. SQLGrinder is an expensive application to develop because of all the database systems that need to be supported, tested against, etc. and because of the number of features in the application. The cost increase is also to help fund some really cool plans for the future. If the price increase rubs you the wrong way, you can wait for one of the sales we run from time to time. You can also beat the price increase by buying a license for 1.2.8, at the current price, which will get you a free update to the final version of 2.0.


• Why the upgrade fee of $19 for the new version? This new version of SQLGrinder is an entirely new application, rewritten from the ground up, with new features, and increased speed, etc. Because of that, and the cost to develop it, there is a small cost to upgrade.


• I requested feature X and it's still not there. Why? We've tried to add support for as many things as people have asked for, but inevitably over time, some things get missed. If your "pet" feature has been forgotten, use the "Send Feedback" menu item in the Help menu to send us email, and we'll try and get it into the beta.

So there you have it. The new version and the old seem to co-exist pretty well, so you should be able to try the new version and go back to the old if you have to. If there are any suggestions or problems, please use the "Send Feedback" menu item in the Help menu to send them to us.

Also, just a reminder that beta builds are full debug builds and aren't optimized for speed, size, etc. yet, and carry the usual "use at your own risk" warnings.

Finally, you can subscribe to the release notes page, which now has an RSS feed, to stay up-to-date on what's changed and what known issues there might be.