What any means is that the FROM clause is just listing the tables and not the relationships between them and relies on the WHERE clause for its joining criteria.

Old Style

Select

A.somecol,

B.othercol

FROM

A,

B

WHERE

A.foreignkey = B.primaryKey

AND

A.somecol = 'somevalue'

New Style

Select

A.somecol,

B.othercol

FROM

A

INNER JOIN

B on B.primaryKey = A.foreignKey

WHERE

A.somecol = 'somevalue'