Phil Factor (2/17/2009)
... SQL Server has always remained culturally different from the rest of the Microsoft stable, but that is more the fault of Microsoft than the SQL Language, I think.
On most Microsoft development tools, I can easily see cause and reason and have cheered the changes and advancements. I too have observed the seeming gap in the feature set for the IDE-like space in Microsoft SQL Server.
They have put great effort into the BI space, both graphically and functionally, to include the .NET framework and all of the power there... but seemingly not much in the SQL editor.
Seriously, why does it seem to have this "cultural" gap?