Pavel,

> AFAIK you can do that already without new datatype, just use VARCHAR
> with character set OCTETS.

Yes, you can and this combination I had in mind when I proposed that
feature... but what looks better:

CREATE TABLE my_table {
bin_data BINARY(16000)
}

or

CREATE TABLE my_table {
bin_data VARCHAR(16000) CHARACTER SET OCTETS
}

Personally I like former case more than latter.

Roman