HELP I am about to quit on AS2005

My background is programming and hard-core SQL, and I am familiar with
several languages and handling of many types of data structures, both
conceptualy and in actual experience of over 20 years. I I expected just by
the nature of the subject a rough ride from the start, but what I
experienced in the end was utter disapointment.

From my perspective the most basic things are extremely hard to configure
and even then needlesly limiting in use due to the way they seem
implementation. On top of that maintenaince and manual creation of
dimentions with sufficient control is lacking and and bound to end in a dead
end road. The only thing that seems to work is to make a relational
equivlent of what you want to do and let wizzards come up with an
aproximation of what is intended.Which is nice for people not knowing what
they want and it problably sells well too, but it does not solve business
problems or help developers create functional and maintainable solutions.

Now it could be the tools I use, so I will elaborate on that a bit. I use
SQL server manager managegement studio and MDX for data access. And I use
Visual studio 2005 to define the AS2005 side of my model. My griefes are
mostly with the later as it is full of features that do absolutely not work,
has loads of eyecandy and unusable stuff while at the same time it is
functional deficient and buggy. This wouldn't be so bad if I could define a
solution by means of the SQL server management studio, but that allows only
viewing of data, not modelling. The next alternative is to use XML
definitions to create stuff, which for me is at shis point a step to big, to
fast. And it requires far better documentation then is supplied IMHO.

The concept of cubes and how to define relationships, etc. is simple and
just a handful of basic rules (Q/A style) should enable anyone with my
background to get ahead and create solutions pretty fast in line with design
intentions. I can't believe how little of that simplicity can be found back
in the user interface and the documentation. Who are these tools designed
for? Given that its a developer tool I would say people like me, but I sure
don't feel that way. This leads me to conclude that something te very wrong
here, is the product even finished? Am I beta testing or participating in
some science experiment?

This is so frustrating...I wouln't even know where to begin listing the
issues I encountered so far without risking an all out flaming war! Not to
mention it would take me a lot of time just to visualise the issues in a way
that everyone can understand.

So please somone tell me what tools you use that give you the control that
is needed, as I have written off visual studio 2005 for it. If nothing else
pops up, I don't think I give it another look any time soon, which I still
feel is a loss. But what I can't control even in the slightest just ain't
good enaugh to be used in a solution.


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