Martijn Tonies wrote:

>
> One could wonder if knowing the bytes_per_character is something
> that needs to be fetched on the client side OR if this could be passed
> on by the server, so that decoding the client side structure would not
> require any more knowledge than passed by the server.
>

Yes it could, but it would be a protocol change and would not work
with existing clients. It could be introduced so the client and
server determine the capabilities of each and a new server uses the
old protocol talking to new clients to preserve upward compatibility
between applications and the Firebird server. But a new client that
depends on the new capabilities would not connect to an old server.
Frankly, I don't think this problem is worth that effort and the
accompanying incompatibility.

Good luck,

Ann