"M. Bastin" <marcbastin(at)mindspring(dot)com> writes:
> I can't figure out how to issue a select statement that will return
> binary data instead of textual data. (pgSQL backend message "B"
> instead of "D".)
You can't; the only operation that produces B messages is a FETCH
from a binary cursor.
This will be improved on in 7.4, btw.
> I'm also having some trouble finding documentation about "function
> calls", and what their use is.
Very little --- I'd call the feature obsolete myself. You might
as well just do "SELECT foo(...)".
regards, tom lane