I think you misunderstood my point. The "modern" way seems to be to avoid SQL using either NoSQL or something like an ORM. Personally I prefer to tackle this

I think you misunderstood my point. The "modern" way seems to be to avoid SQL using either NoSQL or something like an ORM. Personally I prefer to tackle this from the other side with stored procedures and service locators so my application code is free of SQL (aside from the service locator), and all my SQL is in .sql files.....