Easy join with equal, star-equal, equal star (like MSSQL)

[tekanet]

Hi folks,

I'm new with MySQL and I'm really impressed by this database engine.
While waiting for Stored Procedures :) (ver 5: anyone can say when
will be, approximately, released?), due to the fact that I'm coming
from MSSQL world, can anyone tell me if there's a way to perform join
without the classic SQL statement (inner join on, right join on, etc)
but using the WHERE clause, with equal =(inner join), star-equal *=
(left join) and equal-star =* (right join)?

Example follows:

SELECT
A.FIELD_1, B.FIELD_2, C.FIELD_3
FROM
TABLE_1 A, TABLE_2 B, TABLE_3 C
/* Here i go with joins using equals */
WHERE
A.KEYFIELD = B.A_KEYFIELD
AND A.KEYFIELD = C.A_KEYFIELD

I found this way on MSSQL very powerful and I'd like to produce the
same clean-code here with MySQL..

TIA, tK