Jim,
>>
>
>So you are saying that the removal of memo allowability in DISTINCT select queries was a requirement to FIX the known bug?

Yes

>And you are saying that the need to now include ALL SELECTed fields in GROUP BY was a requirement to FIX the known bug?

Yes

>I don't think that either is the case, personally, but it is clear to me that at least the GROUP BY **can** be attributable to ANSI SQL compatability. I believe the both could have been fixed within the existing syntax - it's a simple matter of programming.

Nope, GROUP BY is bug fix also. Can you share your idea how it could fixed in another way?

>I agree that there were bugs and that they have fixed them. I don't feel that it was necessary to adopt ANSI IN ORDER TO FIX THEM.
>Now I don't object that ANSI compatibility was implemented TOO, because I think that is a good thing for the future.
>BUT it remains that I do not feel that the implementation we got was the optimal one. And it remains that we get what we get and have to live with it.