Why isn't SQL ANSI-92 standard better adopted over ANSI-89?

Question

At every company I have worked at, I have found that people are still writing their SQL queries in the ANSI-89 standard:

select a.id, b.id, b.address_1
from          


        

Answer 1

A new SQL standard inherits everything from the previous standard, a.k.a. 'the shackles of compatibility'. So the 'old' / 'comma-separated' / 'unqualified' join style is perfectly valid SQL-92 sytax.

Now, I argue that SQL-92's NATURAL JOIN is the only join you need. For example, I argue it is superior to inner join because it does not generate duplicate columns - no more range variables in SELECT clauses to disambiguate columns! But I can't expected to change every heart and mind, so I need to work with coders who will continue to adopt what I personally consider to be legacy join styles (and they may even refer to range variables as 'aliases'!). This is the nature of teamwork and not operating in a vacuum.

One of the criticisms of the SQL language is that the same result can be obtained using a number of semantically-equivalent syntaxes (some using relational algebra, some using the relational calculus), where choosing the 'best' one simply comes down to personal style. So I'm as comfortable with the 'old-style' joins as I am with INNER. Whether I'd take the time to rewrite them as NATURAL depends on context.