Adam,

> It was only a cosmetic suggest.
>
> If the customer has requested it, and you have advised them that it is
> an overhead and they insist it returned by the database level rather
> than implemented at an application server. The suggestion could easily
> be implemented in the client connection components and you then have
> the best of both worlds. This is a separate issue to the business
> requirements of a customer though.
>
> Adam
>

Still i don't understand your obstinacy about this server side support.
What will be broken in server or ER system theory or math?
Users cant be confused it with table columns, it is only system value
like as 'NOW', or 'USER' or CURRENT_TRANSACTION or others.

Whats is the idea/support difference between them:

select cast('NOW' as timestamp) as FETCH_TIME, id, name from foo

select CURRENT_FETCH_NUMBER, id, name from foo

what is the problem here?

client side solutions needs always more progress or education.
we may be need simple and pure selects sometimes.

if your %30 transmission time increase effects your time critical
application,
this also means you are a professional developer, and you need
client side solution for it at design time.

Regards.
Ali