Limiting syntax to use only ANSI joins also means that you end up with one and only one table as the root table (or view) to select from. I think this makes cod

Limiting syntax to use only ANSI joins also means that you end up with one and only one table as the root table (or view) to select from. I think this makes code much clearer. I tend to writ my SQL like lisp, very compositional with lots of embedded views, in order to be very explicit on how I want tables and views joined. If the optimizer is good, it will know what parts of your statement it can optimize, and if it's not, it usually follows my code, and I don't have to resort to Optimizer hints in order for Oracle to get its black magic done.