RAISERROR calls like the below example are termed as legacy-style because they do not include the commas and the parenthesis. ...

RAISERROR calls like the below example are termed as legacy-style because they do not include the commas and the parenthesis.

        RAISERROR 50001 'this is a test' 

This method of calling RAISERROR is deprecated in SQL Server 2008 and removed in SQL Server 2012 regardless of the database compatibility level.