I have to ask "why do you hate the ANSI join syntax"?
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The wordiness is a problem, though...I will concede that. Specifying joins in the table-specifying "from" clause does allow joins that you can't express in Oracle's "= ... (+)" hack or Sybase's "=* ..." hack ... as much as you hate it, you can write joins in it that you can't write in Oracle's old syntax.
I find the ANSI join syntax not only wordy, but clumsy and inelegant. And that's the precise reason for me using the term "hate": it's a personal preference thing. Or perhaps there's some slowness in my brain cells to adapt to new things...
About the limitations of "=(+)", are you referring to
these? If not, could you expand on them?
Thanks.
