title: Oracle (Old?) Joins - A tool/script for conversion?
body: <p>I have been porting oracle selects, and I have been running across a lot of queries like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT e.last_name,
         d.department_name
    FROM employees e,
        departments d
  WHERE e.department_id(+) = d.department_id;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...and:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT last_name, 
         d.department_id
    FROM employees e, 
         departments d
   WHERE e.department_id = d.department_id(+);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Are there any guides/tutorials for converting all of the variants of the (+) syntax?  What is that syntax even called (so I can scour google)?  </p>
  
  <p><strong>Even better</strong>.. Is there a tool/script that will do this conversion for me (Preferred Free)?  An optimizer of some sort?  I have around 500 of these queries to port..</p>
  
  <p>When was this standard phased out?  Any info is appreciated.</p>