--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "Craig" wrote:

> Hi Im looking to get the best gui manager for firebird databases,
>
> I have tried these -
>
> EMS Manager 2005
> EMS Manager Lite
> Marathon
>
> but want to look at others and get peoples view on the matter.
>
> Whats the best one, biased opinions welcome

IB Expert is brilliant, though I've never tried it. The first I ever
used (other than the free IB_SQL from www.ibobjects.com, which I still
use for ad-hoc queries) was Database Workbench (www.upscene.com) and
it impressed me so much I've never tried another. I don't even know if
there exist a user manual beyond the help file, I just try to do
things the intuitive way, and it works! A workmate of mine wondered
how to do something in IB Expert, didn't find out how to do it and
asked me whether it was possible in Database Workbench. I had no idea,
but researched a couple of minutes and it was easy. I don't remember
what was the question, and I don't doubt that it is possible to do in
IB Expert, but this particular thing was at least much easier to find
out how to do in Database Workbench and Martijn sold a new license to us.

Whether you choose IB Expert or Database Workbench in the end,
probably doesn't matter too much (well, if you later move to another
database, I know Database Workbench can be used with other databases,
and I've never heard that IB Expert can be used with non-IB/Fb
databases), both of them have very satisfied customers on this list
and it is difficult to find a disappointed customer. Note that I use
Database Workbench for creating and modifying tables, stored
procedures etc. in Firebird databases, I've never done any backup,
gfix or anything similar, and 'GUI manager' sounds like a wide definition.

Set