When we ported our application to Firebird, I came down pretty hard
on "select *"-ish queries on the principle that the application
usually died when a new field was added to the table or a field was
removed from the table even if these fields are never used.

I was in a similar boat, with a few queries needing to select 30+
fields. I spend 30 mins writing a program that.

1. Had a memo box where you could type (or paste) the select * query
2. The program read all the fields returned and put them in a comma
separated edit box and copied it to clipboard.

So you placed in it

select first 1 * from employee

and it put in your clipboard

ID, FirstName, LastName, DOB, ......

This could then be copied straight into your program, but I imagine a
select * - ? query would be full of nasty surprises when considering
metadata updates. The above approach is not.

Adam