Someone please fork ADS! I really don't want to go back to SSMS.

[cosmoKenney]

For the love of god, will someone smarter than me fork this project before it retires and goes away?

[josip8]

they should retire SSMS and leave Azure Data Studio 😢

[cosmoKenney]

Agreed. I immediately liked ADS. Haven't used SSMS since I first started using ADS.

[alleycat58uk]

I use ADF as default and backfill with SSMS when the functionality is missing.

It's such a nicer experience. I really don't understand what is going on with this decision.

[EzraWard]

Ditto. When forced to, I step back to SSMS. There are some clear benefits to ADS over SSMS which I won't go into deeply here. However, overall, it's a better user interface, especially for folks that need SQL database access, but need a clear and understandable interface.

[BozeTadic]

Following :)

[joshbooker]

Looks like the MSSQL VSCode Extension will be the closest for those of us who prefer ADS over SSMS/VS-SSDT.

It appears the group maintaining the VSCode extension are largely the same ADS team members.

They will build it, if we come.

microsoft/vscode-mssql#18633

Let's get over there and input issues on the repo to ensure parity with ADS features...

[khadden-compline]

Unfortunately the MSSQL extension is nowhere near as polished as ADS. I find it way to clunky to use. I might take a look at Toad if it is still around/maintained.

[joshbooker]

Agree, but they're bringing stuff over from ADS as we speak. For example: Schema Compare is being worked on by former ADS team members but isn't even on the MSSQL roadmap.

Let's get on the horn and ask for what we want... over on the MSSQL repo.

[guillaume86]

Main thing I'm missing is a separate icon for my SQL IDE, using a SQL profile is doable with VS Code (not completely seamless but good enough), unfortunately a separate fully working windows taskbar icon does not seem doable, anyone got an idea? Maybe a separate VSC install?

[khadden-compline]

Like that one??

[guillaume86]

Apparently it's possible with portable installs + a few edits in the files, I will probably need to fall back to that once ADS becomes unusable.

[joshbooker]

I personally like having a separate IDE as well, but if they can make feature parity in VSCode extensions, I'll live with it before going back to SSMS, VS-SSDT.

Would be nice to investigate profiles/settings by project type. ie: .sqlproj vs .csproj

[joshbooker]

PS - Here's a good explanation re: SQL Tools future:

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Add-support-for-SQL-database-projects/10864596#T-N10894588

I'm feeling a bit better now.