Fwd: [pgadmin-support] Serious feedback and questions about thefuture of pgAdmin. - Mailing list pgadmin-support

On Jun 11, 2017, at 4:11 AM, <grekloedlc@tutanota.com> <grekloedlc@tutanota.com> wrote:

Dear pgAdmin developers,

When I first heard that you were doing a total rewrite of pgAdmin III, I was extremely excited, because I had long been frustrated with the various annoyances and bugs in that program, which I was (and am still, actually) using daily, primarily how it always felt like a chore to start up and get ready unless the server was physically located near me.

So when you eventually released the first public version of pgAdmin generation 4, I very eagerly downloaded it and tried it out. Unfortunately, to claim that I was "disappointed" isn't enough; I was frankly *appalled*. I will list the reasons in a moment, but I'd first like to point out that since then, I have repeatedly tried new versions of it, hoping to see improvements, but unfortunately finding all the same issues still present (as of v1.5, 2017-06-11, at the time of typing).

Here are the critical issues:

1. Extreme sluggishness. Both the GUI itself, and the fetching of data from the server, is so slow and flimsy as to drive me insane even efter using it for less than a minute. I seriously get so angry that I kill the window in disgust. I'm not trying to be insulting or overly dramatic; this is just a fact. The software makes me angry due to how slow and unreliable it seems, and how prone it is to freeze (although it recovers after a while). This is on a *very* powerful and modern x86 workstation running a very "clean" (relative) Windows 10. All other programs are responsive and fast, except for pgAdmin 4. I really feel handicapped using it, in a way that's not at all the case with the old pgAdmin III, although even that one has mysterious fetch-delays that don't seem to correspond with the amount of data pulled through the network (SSH tunnel)…

2. It doesn't remember the empty password. It just keeps on asking, again and again, for the nonexistent password, even though I've checked the box to "remember" it a million times. This is infuriating to say the least.

3. Even worse so than the old program, pgAdmin 4 also doesn't seem to remember the "last state" at all, forcing me to slowly progress through the tree hierarchy each time I start it, waiting seconds each time I click anything. This makes me just let out a big sigh each time I have to manage my databases in any way, including making simple queries in a graphical environment. What should be instant becomes a huge chore. I cannot believe that it doesn't remember the "state" of the collapsed objects until the next time.

In order to say something positive, I do appreciate the cross-platformness and apparently the ability for it to run in a browser, hosted on a server. (Although I personally don't trust it or any other software to do that safely.) Sadly, this has the serious downside of extremely poor performance, at least on Windows, to the point of making it practically impossible to use.

I don't wanna sound as if I'm just telling you what a terrible job you've done. I realize that in spite of these serious flaws, a lot of work must have been plowed into this project, and it's unlikely that my complaints will really be taken to heart by the people who worked on it for so long, and for free, only to then get "insulted". I feel genuinely sorry and frustrated about the whole situation, and I'm now seriously wondering what to do with my "computer life" as it is heavily dependent on PostgreSQL as the basis. pgAdmin III is aging and pgAdmin 4 doesn't seem to be going anywhere, or changing in any major ways from its current state.

What are the odds that you'll forget about pgAdmin 4 and instead go straight for a "pgAdmin V", taking everything you've learned but improving on it heavily? By the way, it is extremely common for developers to first do something great, then try to improve it, but failing entirely, instead producing a monster. For example: Winamp. There are many more cases, and it seems to happen again and again. It even happened to me! I was super proud of a product that was, to me, "vastly superior" to the old one, but the users absolutely hated it, and eventually, I had to realize that while technically better in some aspects, I had just done things "differently for the sake of doing them differently". I hope you'll understand me and that I really just want a great pgAdmin tool -- not to be mean.

If you have anything promising to tell me in regards to any of this, I'd like to hear it. In the past, I've looked through the miserable "alternatives", so it's probably pointless to tell me about any of those, but if there is some sort of alternative that you know of, which is heavily polished and maintained and trusted and free of charge, it would definitely be interesting to me. However, I very much doubt that anything like that exists, and I doubt that this is the best place to ask for that. In fact, it's probably considered rude...

// A long-time pgAdmin user who'd hate to see this crucial tool go the same way as so many other now-dead programs.