>Hi Naomi,
>>There should not be difference in performance, IMHO, but I would always prefer JOIN syntax over WHERE syntax for better readability.
>>
>>Also JOIN and WHERE behave differently, JOIN happens first, then WHERE.
>
>Nope. Filtering normally comes first to speed up by reducing set size (usually the where clause) and then the join-operation.
>If there is a filter in the join condition SOMETIMES this is also executed during the first step (depends on the smarts of the engine).
>
>regards
>thomas

I'm not sure this is correct (I believe it's incorrect). See message #1401825

There needs to be done a bit of research on the topic to confirm/deny your statement, but I'm busy at the moment - will do the actual research later.