
Heroku Releases Free PostgreSQL App for OSX - craigkerstiens
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/19/heroku-releases-free-postgresql-app-for-osx/
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ksherlock
What a useless write up.

<http://postgresapp.com/> <https://github.com/mattt/PostgresApp>

Postgres.app is the easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac.
Open the app, and you have a PostgreSQL server ready and awaiting new
connections. Close the app, and the server shuts down.

Postgres.app will be distributed through the Mac App Store, with a separate
build containing the latest PostgreSQL beta available for direct download from
the website.

~~~
jdelsman
brew install postgres

Done. How is this useful?

~~~
mattsoldo
brew was a big step forward. But 1 step (download postgres.app) is better than
3 (install devtools, install brew, brew install postgres).

We saw that many developers were using SQLite (or MySQL) on their local
machines, but Postgres on Heroku. This led to frustrating and hard to diagnose
bugs and behaviors in their apps. Our hypothesis is that easier local install
will lead to more widespread usage for the technology.

~~~
eblume
This will definitely lead to more people using Postgres on their OS X setups,
but what I wonder is whether it will lead to an overall better quality of
development.

Let me try to articulate my point, but I could probably use some help:

I suspect that the sort of developers who were writing apps and using SQLite
locally but deploying with Postgres were the sort of developers whom will
still use shaky and poor development and deployment practices regardless of
whether or not Postgres is available to them locally.

Orthogonally, I think that the kinds of developers who will actually take the
time to follow best development and deployment practices probably wouldn't
want to use an app like this - not because it isn't a nice and helpful app,
but because they probably want to install the full always-on server bundle via
'brew'.

That's my guess anyway. Does this mean the app was a bad idea? No, definitely
not. But I don't personally expect a huge uptick in Heroku deployment quality
because of it. At least it definitely won't be for lack of trying!

~~~
rbanffy
I routinely use SQLite for development and deploy against PostgreSQL and MySQL
(and others) and I don't think my development and deployment practices are
either shaky or poor. I write tests, measure coverage, do continuous testing
(including load testing and resource consumption goals) and the fancy
technologies that allow me to target different databases with the same source
code are nothing new: SQL and an ORM. I consider the fact the code isn't very
tied to a given database implementation is a sign of high quality, not the
other way around.

No doubt this app will appeal to the more casual developers. When the low-end
of Dell is a 4-core x86-64 with more memory than most people will ever need,
most non-casual developers who need to write code specific to a given database
will have it starting up on boot.

~~~
alttab
Agreed. The pay off seems rather incremental but the playoffs are nuanced. A
developer doesn't have to install it manually, and this is big for junior
developers who may not have set up a sophisticated environment before. It also
cuts down on set up time for new machines and new hires. Any bogus
environmental issues go away and could regain 3-4 hours on day 1 getting into
a new app.

Postgres performs and behaves differently too. Developers will be more
conscious of vacuuming and analyzing their DBS, especially after large
deletes, etc.

Overall it removes friction, regardless of how trivial, and helps commoditize
the whole development and deployment cycle which is essentially herokus entire
value proposition.

I say great work.

~~~
bradfa
_this is big for junior developers who may not have set up a sophisticated
environment before. It also cuts down on set up time for new machines and new
hires_

This. I'm just getting started playing with Heroku as a hobby. I've not used
Postgres before, so getting things set up correctly on my dev machine was not
a "install one app, go" kind of experience. I spent at least an hour reading /
trying / understanding. Having something like this would have meant 1 more
hour of making, rather than trying to get Postgres setup.

For hobby (or any) projects, 1 extra hour doing what I want to do is a big
deal. I'm only able to spend about 5 hours per week on my hobby, getting 20%
of my time last week back would have been a big deal to me.

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untog
Damn. I was hoping this would be a Postgres client, not a bundled server.
pgAdmin works, but it's a pain. Sequel Pro is orders of magnitude better.

~~~
willlll
Try the sister project <http://inductionapp.com/>

~~~
JonnieCache
There's also this, similar but more full featured.

<http://www.navicat.com/>

I use it a lot, and have nothing but praise for it.

~~~
eropple
I got Navicat during a sale on the App Store. It's the first app where I
wished I could re-buy it at list price. It is GREAT.

~~~
teyc
I'm curious. What's Navicat do that cheaper clients/don't?

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rdl
It's cool that this exists, but when I do development local to my mac, I
always use a virtual linux machine for the server -- just a whole lot easier
to keep the prod and test platforms in sync, and makes it easier to roll back.

I do like having macports (or homebrew, I guess) on the mac for tools like
mutt, curl, wget, nmap, etc., but I'd prefer to run a whole virtual front end
server talking to a virtual db server and use local clients on the mac to
connect.

(I really wish I had more than 4GB RAM in my Air, though, but don't want to
replace this one so soon)

~~~
rgrieselhuber
What app do you use to manage the virtual instances?

~~~
Aqua_Geek
Vagrant (<http://vagrantup.com>) is a good option for creating/managing
environments.

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kristianp
I found this alarming: " The majority of active apps on Heroku use Postres,
but we found that many developers use SQLite or MySQL on their local
development machines".

If your app is at the deployment to production stage, then I would strongly
recommend using the same database as will be used in production. This quote
isn't actually saying what proportion of developers don't do that, though.

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IanMalcolm
And no silly kickstarter was needed for that.

~~~
msie
I assume that the people who wrote it are employed, and getting paid, by
GitHub.

~~~
younata
Heroku, but close enough.

------
sailfast
It definitely took some work to get PostgreSQL up and running on OSX when I
was trying to mirror my Heroku production environment locally for dev. This
lowers a bunch of barriers, especially for a newbie to the PostgreSQL like me
so I can appreciate this.

I'm sure anyone working through Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial right now and
trying to do the optional Postgres configuration is also pretty excited at the
time savings.

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joshstrange
I'm confused, hasn't this existed for a while now? I have had this installed
on my machine since Jun 4th, 2012. How is this "News"?

~~~
leftnode
Maybe not everyone subscribes to the Heroku mailing list or the list of all
new software released ever and hadn't heard about it?

~~~
zacharyvoase
The article says it was released today, but it wasn't.

~~~
klint
Heroku told me it was just released today.

~~~
mattsoldo
Postgres.app was in beta until today. Now it is GA. This was our first public
announcement.

