A few things have been marked for deprecation in a future version of SQL Server (these will still be included in 2005, but possibly not in the future). One of the features to be removed is the shortened syntax for outer joins (*=).
For example, currently I use the syntax:
SELECT e.[ErrorId], [ErrorKey], [ErrorType], [SessionId], [Description], [ServerName], [ErrorDateTime]
FROM [ErrorLog] e, ErrorLogSession s
WHERE E.ErrorId *= s.ErrorId
Instead of the syntax:
SELECT e.[ErrorId], [ErrorKey], [ErrorType], [SessionId], [Description], [ServerName], [ErrorDateTime]
FROM [ErrorLog] e
LEFT OUTER JOIN ErrorLogSession s ON e.ErrorId = s.ErrorId
I have always been a fan of writing procedures the first way. It's an older way of doing a join but it is a lot less clutter in your stored procedures.
Again, this feature is marked for deprecation in a future version of SQL Server (not including 2005). Therefore, if you have any stored procedures that use this syntax, you have a mere three to five years before you need to do anything about it.
Read the complete post at http://www.dotnettipoftheday.com/blog.aspx?id=175