 <p>We have to maintain on an old system here (20 years and older).</p> <p>ESQL is used massively in here. The most of the problems we had while moving the software to a new OS (it was an 15 year old hpux) where with the ESQL code.</p> <p>The new software we are writing are all making use of the C++ library. This gives us more readable code + our IDE doesn't say 'invalid syntax' all the time. etc.. The C++ library is in general terms very equal as how I connect to a database in .NET or Java.</p> <p>Using the C++ library whe have an improvement of speed (if used wisely) and much less errors.</p> <p>ESQL is deprecated by my point of view. But since we have entered an time where a lot of the written software is to update/upgrade or maintain existing systems, it is very handy to have basic knowledge of old techniques!</p>