Should I use != or <> for not equal in T-SQL?

Question

I have seen SQL that uses both != and <> for not equal. What is the preferred syntax and why?

Answer 1

!=, despite being non-ANSI, is more in the true spirit of SQL as a readable language. It screams not equal. <> says it's to me (less than, greater than) which is just weird. I know the intention is that it's either less than or greater than hence not equal, but that's a really complicated way of saying something really simple.

I've just had to take some long SQL queries and place them lovingly into an XML file for a whole bunch of stupid reasons I won't go into.

Suffice to say XML is not down with <> at all and I had to change them to != and check myself before I riggedy wrecked myself.