Toad (software)

TOAD is a database administration and SQL development software application, considered a de-facto tool of choice for Oracle DBAs (database administrators). TOAD is now available for the following databases: Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and MySQL.

Supported Operating Systems and Versions

TOAD runs on all 32-bit Windows platforms, including Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, and XP. Hardware requirements are such that if you can run the operating system, TOAD will probably run. For backend connectivity you will need Oracle 32-bit SQL*Net and Oracle version 7.3.4 or later.

There is no support for any non-Microsoft environment. Instead, an open source variant of TOAD that is platform independent had been developed, dubbed TOra.

History

TOAD was originally designed by a practicing Oracle developer, Jim McDaniel TOADman, in order to make his own life easier. He called it "Tool for Oracle Application Developers", TOAD for short. The tool was so useful that he made it available first as shareware and later as freeware, and distributed it freely over the Internet.

As the user base grew, so did the effort of maintenance and development. Finally, the author realized that he could no longer dedicate substantial amounts of time to the growing quantity of software enhancement requests.

On November 9 1998 Quest Software, a developer and distributor of a competitive, related product, SQL Navigator, suddenly announced the acquisition of TOAD as an addition to its family of database development and management solutions for Oracle.

Jim McDaniel, TOAD's creator, explained the move: "I approached Quest Software because it is a great company with a commitment to quality products. They also have an outstanding reputation for customer support and a very loyal user following not unlike that of TOAD."

It remains the most successful Oracle database administration tool in the DBA community, despite Oracle's own software, such as Oracle Developer, SQL Station, and many others, that demonstrate a lack of flexibility or excessive hardware requirements, sending DBAs and developers back to the SQL*Plus console.

More recently, TOAD has been expanded to other database platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, and MySQL.

A share of TOAD end-users expressed concerns with Quest's move to version 8 of the product. Version 7.x (7.4 being the latest) was the last Delphi-based version of TOAD. There have been calls to release the Delphi product strand into open source, though that seems unlikely due to Quest's proprietary rights.

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