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Ask HN: Good OS X data modeling software?

9 points by sant0sk1 ↗ HN
I'm looking for something to help me visualize my data structure design. I've done the requisite Googling and haven't come up with much besides OmniGraffle, which is a little pricey ($100 US for Standard Edition) and not built specifically for this purpose.

In the old days I'd just fire up M$ Access and use that to show table names, attributes, and relationships. Currently I've resorted to pen & paper.

Anybody solved this problem before? HN community advice is always welcomed and appreciated!

21 comments

[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 49.5 ms ] thread
charlesju
I know this is not as advance as you would like, but I use Open Office Draw for my process flows and DB models and stuff.
mmelin
SQLEditor works very well, although a single license costs $79. Try out the trial. One awesome thing about it that it can parse a SQL dump of your existing database and create a visual model of the structure.

http://www.malcolmhardie.com/sqleditor/

jawngee
You sir, are my new best friend.
wenbert
I vote for pencil and paper ;-) you can erase! I do this and then directly create the sql in phpmyadmin or something similar -- for most of projects which are small.
edw519
you can erase!

And you're not limited by the preconceived notions of the software you're using. It's also surprising how quickly you learn something when you have to draw and erase it 5 times (vs. entering some data into someone else's app.)

for most of projects which are small

Large projects too. They're just a lot of small projects stuck together.

wenbert
also I would like to point out that I love paper. I love notebooks with my daily notes in them. I love print-outs. I love storing paper. I love seeing my (ugly)handwriting in my notes. It makes me remember things and makes me understand faster than looking at the fonts in my monitor.
wheels
I use a whiteboard and an 8 megapixel camera for backups. ;-)
wenbert
I have tried using whiteboard. But i kept on erasing stuff and had no permanent records. My life was a mess when i used it (for about a week). so i went back to pencil and paper ;)

your 8 megapixel camera solves my problem. But i don't have one.

jonhohle
as mcormier said, you can use Xcode's data modeling. There is also Umbrello, which either requires X11 or finding a recent native OS X build.

i don't have any experience with it, but also found ArgoUML (http://argouml.tigris.org/)

mwbrooks
You may want to glance at 'R' which is an open source alternative to 'S'. http://www.r-project.org/

'R' is used to manipulate data and graphically display the results. I've never used it myself, but I know it's used in my University's Computer Science department.

shaunxcode
DIA: http://live.gnome.org/Dia/

I think the darwinports page for it is currently down (actually the entire server may be down), but regardless dia rules! Saves as svg so it's really easy to write reverse engineering tools for your code base/database. When I say really easy I mean possible.

1gor
Java UML tool like ArgoUML?
river_styx
Visualization is for sissies. Directly editing SQL scrips in TextMate is the only way to go. :)
mattdennewitz
handing sql scripts over to clients in the first stage of planning development is a great idea :)

so easy to read!

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drewcrawford
This is probably outside of your pricerange, but have you looked at Wolfram's Mathematica? I find it invaluable for all sorts of statistical data modeling.
omahajoe
I'm not a techy but www.thebrain.com is the coolest visualization tool i've found and its free...but may not apply for what you're looking fore