blog-j: Symbolizing, Coding, Objectifying, Processing

Intellisense (code-completion, for those of you who don’t work with MS products) is one of those features that really make an IDE useful. We all no that we can’t remember much (if anything), and having that little drop-box show up when we need it is a huge time saver.

One place I’ve always found it lacking is with Sql Queries.

Well, no more. Red Gate has released a product called Sql Prompt that adds Intellisense support for Sql.

SQL Prompt provides Intellisense® style auto-completion for Microsoft SQL Server editors. It will tell you the exact formatting you should use for your SQL commands, while you are writing them and will therefore help you write fast, perfectly formatted SQL statements. SQL Prompt improves the productivity of all SQL script creation. SQL Prompt can be downloaded free until 1st September 2006 and we are providing forum support on the SQL Prompt support forum. A web help file is also available.

SQL Prompt simply sits behind the scenes and provides unobtrusive help when you press Ctrl-Space or when you type “.” after a table/view/alias name.

SQL Prompt works with Microsoft Query Analyzer, SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio .NET 2003, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager, UltraEdit32.

How. Cool. Is. That.

Btw, that’s free as in beer (until Sept 2006). Works forever.

So go download your copy @ reg-gate.com/products/SQL_Prompt/

I’ve noticed this over the last few weeks: attempting to clear local storage for a site with the Beta of the Flash 9 player does not clear existing shared objects for that site. I’m not sure if this has to do with not using the “new” settings Page vs the settings panel in the player. Anyone have any experience with this?

I’ve documented this on Labs, as I was not sure where to send it.

…and vote for the 2006 MMVA People’s Choice Awards.

There’s some very cool Flash shtuff going on there, if I do say so myself (granted I’m a bit biased*, but…).

Cheers to the team.

Check it out, and vote for your faves @ muchmusic.com/mmva

* - Yes, I was involved (very) in building the Voting and Rewind sections…

As if you didn’t know.

I’m not the first person to say this, and I may not be quite the most emphatic, but it must be said: FlashDevelop kicks some major code-editor ass.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SEPY, and I’ve been using it faithfully for a long, long, long time. And I’ve been really, really, really happy with it.

But FlashDevelop feels way nicer to me today. I’ve installed it before (and kept up with the upgrades), but never really got around to using it (yeah, yeah…we’re all lazy like that, right?). Tonight I’ve been using it, and…man. I am floored. Slick, smooth, and a seriously fluid experience.

Now I just have to write a plugin to use it with MXML/AS3. If someone more adept with such things doesn’t beat me to it, that is…

Check it out @ flashdevelop.org (and osflash.org)

Joe Balderson compiled a comprehensive listing of session notes from the myriad of sessions at this years FiTC festival on the FlashinTO message boards. This is seriously a public service, and very much worth checking out…

Check ‘em out @ flashinto.com

Not that this is a surprise to most people reading this blog (yes, yes, I know…thank you, Mom and Dad, I appreciate it…), but it seems that Flash is an in-demand skill in Canada. My mother-in-law gave me this article from the Globe and Mail over the weekend. The author did spell Macromedia wrong (in the article it shows up as “Micromedia Flash”…and doing a search for “macromedia” on their site does not turn up the article, but searching for “micromedia” does…go figure…), and neglect to mention that Flash is now an Adobe technology, but nonetheless, a nice piece to read for all you Canuck Flashers. Not to mention you non-Canuck down-on-your-luck Flashers looking to cross a border or two…

The situation is so severe that Ottawa-based Fuel Industries issued a press release last month that screamed: “We need more flash developers!”

“If we don’t find more people, we’re going to have to hook the creative tech team up to an amphetamine drip or open an office in New York,” CEO Mike Burns said in the release. “And you don’t want to see a flash developer hopped up on speed. It’s not a pretty sight.”

It’s a good time to Flash in Canada, baby.

Read more @ theglobeandmail.com