So I’m setting up my windows PC at home (hooray compsci classes being an all Microsoft setup, requiring Visual Studio 2005), downloading the MySQL GUI tools, launching them to test when I notice that MySQL Workbench went through a HUGE overhaul. When I say huge I mean “It Actually Works Now And Looks Completely Different” huge.

Which is funny ’cause last time I downloaded the work bench it was horrendously broken alpha software. Version 1.1. Now we are at 5.0 Beta? About 3 months later!?

Crazy. I guess I need to pay more attention?

Though the real question is right now, how does it stack up in a real world situation? Well I had to finish up the database design for some client work so I decided to try working it in MySQL Workbench (rather than my usual staple, the sadly discontinued DBDesigner).

First things first, I really like the summary view. Having quick access to either working with the tables (as I would in the actual DB) or editing an EER diagram is very nice, and the interface is attractive to boot.

The EER diagram editor is somewhat nice. It’s very clean, though the relationship lines like to group themselves too closely together.

The part I don’t like is actually altering the tables. Opening the table editor in a new window is currently a bit buggy (I’ll chalk that up to beta software), but regardless the default is to open up in a tab on the bottom quarter of the screen. I personally preferred the table editor dialog of DBDesigner 4, however I can’t have everything I want. I also got a bit frustrated when editing individual columns. Normally one would double click a cell to edit, however in MySQL Workbench, single clicking opens the cell for editing, which makes it frustrating when trying to navigate the columns.

All in all I’m very impressed and will play around with more of the features at a later point in time.