I have several years experience with Oracle and SQLPlus and I am now starting to use Mysql in Debian Lenny. I created a database, then created a table and practised a few queries and it all seems fine but I can't find anything equivalent to Oracle's SQLForms. This let you display the table contents in a window and make changes, insert new records and so on. There is Mysql GUI tools but as far as I can see the Query Browser only does select. Why can't it do insert as well? I may have overlooked something but if I am right could you please tell me what GUI you can recommend that does data input, etc? There are quite a few freeware suites that look promising but I don't know which one to go for. Should I learn Ruby do you think?

Well, learning Ruby (or Perl, C, etc.), is never a bad idea...increasing your knowledge never hurts.

That said, you might want to check out MySQL Workbench, which may do what you're looking for. You might also want to check out phpMyAdmin, which is a web-based tool. I haven't used that in years, though..MySQL Adminstrator does a good job, and is a bit easier to run, in my opinion..

phpMyAdmin will let you insert records as well as query.

MySQL admin allow table editing and data insertion. PHPmyAdmin does too, even if its lower end and target causual users.

Thanks for all this. MySQLAdmin (Navicat) looks as if it will do everything I want. phpMyAdmin will also; it is a little cheaper but may be more trouble to set up. I liked the interactive demo. MySQL Workbench looks nice too. So I have an embarrassment of choice. There are even more admin tools out there, reviewed in http://tinyurl.com/cdf6bt
(which includes Workbench, phpMyQAdmin and Navicat Lite). I'll get on to it right away. .