Re: [pgadmin-support] making me love pgAdmin III - Mailing list pgadmin-support

Dave,

In addition, the single biggest issue I have with PgAdmin4 is the new window structure.  Where PgAdminIII was natively installed, and thus embraced all the multiple window functionality therein, PgAdmin4 is constrained to a single application window.  This makes it impossible to embrace multiple monitors unless you open up multiple application instances, which I don't even know if supported.  Basically, where I used to be able to spread windows and queries in PgAdminIII across all my monitors as necessary to compare tables, and copy and paste code between Queries, I am now constrained to a single window and switching between tabs that are named Query-1, Query-2, etc. regardless of whether it is a table, query, etc. being viewed.  As Melvin stated, I do not understand why the most basic functionality and flexibility of the software was abandoned, or not included in the initial release of the new software.

Even if you do pop a query out to a separate window, it is constrained within the application window, and the behavior is not consistent.

Here are a few others:

1.  Aforementioned Query/Table naming.  Naming everything Query-1, etc. regardless of whether a table view, or a query is making it less informative. 
2.  Speed of PgAdmin4 compared to PgAdminIII is a major issue.  I have queries and tables that hang in 4 which work when I open up using 3.
3.  Change of display of Geometry Reference for PostGIS extension.  Instead of referencing the geometry type and spatial reference, it lists an integer that has no clear meaning.  It is a two or 3 step process to trace back to geometry type and spatial reference.
Old:  geometry(MultiPolygon,3500)
New:  geometry(896020)

I understand the urge and need to move to new technologies and practices for application development.  That should always be done in the context of preserving the usability of the existing software, and not losing the functionality already contained therein.

Thanks,
Russell

On 2017-05-18 18:27, Melvin Davidson wrote:

Dave,

 

If you are looking for constructive criticism, then the following are options that

were in PgAdmin III and at minimum should be added back to PgAdmin4.

 

1. The ability to choose a specific font for displays or query window
2. Choose colors for query options
3. Favorites & macros in query screen
4. Choose colors for server status

 

Personally, I still cannot comprehend why all options/features that were in PgAdmin III

were not included in PgAdmin4. I have never heard of any other software program where

options/features from a previous release were not included in the newest release.

Compare the options window in PgAdmin4 to PgAdmin III and you will see there is a great

deal more missing.

 

As to your statement "the number of people I've had complimenting pgAdmin 4 is probably

20x the number who have said they don't like it.", those compliments must be coming to

another email address other than pgadmin-support, because I have not seen them.

 

I do appreciate what you and your team are doing, but as I have said before, I believe

PgAdmin4 was a hurried release and more testing should have been done before it went GA.

 

Melvin Davidson 🎸
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From: Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>
To: Eric Hill <Eric.Hill@jmp.com>
Cc: "pgadmin-support@postgresql.org" <pgadmin-support@postgresql.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2017 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: [pgadmin-support] making me love pgAdmin III

 

On 18 May 2017, at 21:09, Eric Hill <Eric.Hill@jmp.com> wrote:

 

 

Hey,

 

I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings or anything, but is it not obvious to everyone that pgAdmin 4 (I have version 1.4) is bloody horrendous?  It is absolutely as slow as Christmas.  It's use of screen real-estate is poor.  I was never a huge fan of pgAdmin III; I mean, it seemed to do its job okay, but after using pgAdmin 4, suddenly I have newfound respect for pgAdmin III.

Not to me, because the number of people I've had complimenting pgAdmin 4 is probably 20x the number who have said they don't like it. Which is a good sign - normally people who don't like something are far more likely to say something.

 

Either way, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. pgAdmin 4 is far more stable than pgAdmin 3 was, has attracted more new developers in a year than pgAdmin 3 had in 15, and continues to improve with every release. I'm very proud of the way the team have built such a complex application in such a short space of time that many people have told me they like.

 

You can't please everyone unfortunately, but then a) it's free (despite being estimated at over $2M worth of work), and b) it's open source so those that are inclined can help improve it further.

 

Constructive feedback is always welcome of course. In your case maybe you could explain how you're using it such that you see slow response. For me, it performs well, even on my low powered 1.2GHz MacBook. It's naturally slower than pgAdmin 3 of course, as it's not a native application, but it still outpaces my ability to drive it and I'm no slouch behind the keyboard.

 

Regards, Dave