Hi Binarus,
I see 3 options here:
1) MariaDB captains can help you implementing this, we always welcome contributions and Alexander already point you where to start.
2) You really need this feature and can switch to MariaDB, please contact one of our sale reps to quote you some NRE work .
3) Captains fill this is a generic issue that need to be fixed for the benefit of all, but also prioritise it on other tasks they are working on.
Tell us the time you are ready to wait, How much you can afford to help etc. ..?
An other option is that you switch to MariaDB and use VarBinary, that would help our captains not to forget your request!
I'll try to take option 1) and have a look into the code over the weekend. I would be proud to make a small contribution to your project. But since I never have read any of the sources of MySQL or MariaDB until now, I am unsure if I will be able to do anything meaningful to the code. Furthermore, I (currently) don't know how to submit patches. But I'll find out ... Regards, Binarus