[ergest]

> I can't decide if it would be better or worse if it stuck more closely to SQL keywords. You use "from" and "select", but not "where", "order by", "group by". There's some danger of it being in an uncanny valley of SQLish, but I'm pretty sure I'd prefer just using those terms verbatim (including the space in "order by"... that style is less common in modern languages but it's not really that much harder to parse)

I agree 100% here. As a SQL veteran, it would make the transition a lot easier if you used common SQL keywords like group by, order by, limit, etc. e.g.

    from employees
    where country = "USA"
    derive [
      gross_salary: salary + payroll_tax,
      gross_cost:   gross_salary + benefits_cost
    ]           
    where gross_cost > 0
    group by:[title, country] [
        average salary,
        sum     salary,
        average gross_salary,
        sum     gross_salary,
        average gross_cost,
        sum_gross_cost: sum gross_cost,
        count,
    ]
    order by:sum_gross_cost
    where count > 200
    limit 20