Taking a page from cracked.com or David Letterman. Everything seems to be easier to read if it’s in a top n list. I decided to search the Microsoft Connect site to list the most voted feedback items for SQL Server (past and present). Mostly to see what Microsoft has done with them.
10. 284192 Farsi Language Support:
Closed (Fixed) Suggestion. It’s supported with SQL Server 2008. This is a win for Microsoft (and Persian developers).
9. 331220 Backup / Restore without index data
Active Suggestion. It was opened March of 2008 and remains opened. It seems like a great suggestion to me. You sacrifice backup/restore speed for smaller space. The Microsoft response is less than satisfying. They’re saying: “That’s too haaaaaard” (I’m paraphrasing).
8. 125117 Need 64-bit JET provider for x64 box
Closed (External) Suggestion. I think external means that this is not a SQL Server issue but a MS Office issue. I imagine this one is so popular because it’s a component to a method that allows importing data from Excel sheets into SQL Server (via SSIS). Again Microsoft’s response seems like “Thanks for your feedback but no”
7. 127219 CREATE OR REPLACE
Active Suggestion. A suggestion that is in its fourth year. Do you remember School House Rock? Do you remember that bill is waiting to become a law? That must be what this connect issue is feeling. There are a lot of emotional reactions around this issue. Microsoft’s response to this issue is “We can’t implement everything!” (again I paraphrase). But this feature is certainly got to be a lot simpler than backups without index data (see #9 above). Also, Aaron Bertrand thinks that Microsoft is finally seriously considering it, so that’s promising.
6. 299296 Relax restriction that table parameters must be readonly when SPs call each other.
Active Suggestion. Erland Sommarskog opened this one; he’s an MVP who wrote – in my opinion – the definitive guide to Arrays and Lists. So he knows what he’s talking about. It would be a great feature and enable a really dynamic way to move data around while keeping to set-based principles. The suggestion was opened 12/10/2007. It was created as a response to Katmai details that were coming out about the new table-valued parameters feature. As such, it was a bit too late to consider this issue for 2008. But Microsoft does say that they have it “firmly in our radar to address as part of the next release” (direct quote this time)
5. 254293 Allow literals and read only table data to be represented as enums
Active Suggestion. I’m not sure what to think about this. It would allow syntax that has where clauses something like:
WHERE PaymentType IN (Mastercard, Visa)
The hardest part is to decide what to do with a collision of enum values and column names. Microsoft says there are some workarounds and they’ll consider it in the future. I don’t see the value in this feature. Well, I do, but not enough to get this issue on this top 10 list. Let me know what you think.
4. 124550 Bring back stored procedure debugger in SQL Server 2005
Closed (Fixed). Win for Microsoft (and debuggers)! You see that debugger that’s available in SQL 2008? You can thank this issue.
3. 124561 Make full scripting for tables as it is in SQL2000
Closed (Fixed). Call this a win for Microsoft. It is fixed, but many people were not satisfied with the fix. I think it’s just fine. There is a new Scripting page in Tools –> Options. On a related note, Paul Randal describes an obscure feature that lets you script data from tables here.
2. 341872 IntellliSense backward compatibility
Closed (By Design) Suggestion. A disappointment for me and many others. I’ve blogged about this before. Again Microsoft’s message seems to be “Thanks for your feedback, but no, that’s too haaaaard.” I paraphrase. What gets most people is that this used to work in one of the Katmai CTPs but they disabled it for RTM.
1. 326575 Release Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2005
Closed (Fixed). I’m not sure, but isn’t this one like petitioning the sun to come up? I think SP3 was going to happen with or without the issue.
Actually, for your #1, Microsoft was very resistant to release SP3. I really believe they succumbed to the pressure that Hugo created and inspired. There may have been other reasons as well, and who knows what goes on behind closed doors, but at one point they really asserted that SP2 would be the last service pack for 2005.
Comment by Aaron Bertrand — November 16, 2009 @ 9:13 am