Agreed!

Mathematical calculations. Basically a set formula (this is “model scoring” (predictive analytics)).

In the case of the scoring formulas, its just a deterministic scalar function into which several values are passed and a result is calculated.

But, as a former application programmer, I think that there is a big problem (which is being addressed by MS little by little) with the separation of application code and SQL code (and this is only worse in the non-MS development world).

As an application developer the SQL code is also not at all transparent. It’s annoying as an application developer to have logic “hidden” in SQL triggers and stored procs where seeing what’s happening becomes difficult and not obvious.

My dream, and probably that of many, would be to be able to trace into code and have it jump seamlessly between application source code and database layer code. To be able to step into a process that inserts a record, and then if there is an INSTEAD OF trigger or AFTER trigger on the table, to trace right into that code within the same environment as if it were just another source file.

I think MS is working in that direction, the new VS 11 and their stand alone Data Tools environment point in that direction.

But yeah, I think that writing and deploying CLR should be as simple as writing and deploying any normal SQL object, and debugging the code should be as simple as well.