Is there a reliable pure-SQL way of determining version of Firebird
server? Firebird FAQ 223 lists two possible ways of finding server
version, but I am not happy with either: One relies on service API which
I can't use from my application, the other uses SQL statement which
doesn't exist in earlier versions than FB2.1. It seems to me I can try
to compare contents of some system tables in FB1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.1 for
distinguishing values, though I can't find a good candidate at the
moment, but that can hardly be considered reliable. What did I miss?

Thanks, Pepak