William, looking back over your comments I am not sure why you call using explicit parameters "messy". To me its the correct thing and is certainly the most explicit. As I have said there is a valid use case for rendering the literals into the SQL, not to mention you are explicitly using a literal form in the criteria.

So my current thinking here is that for base processing I would like to see literal forms in the criteria always result in literal forms in the SQL/JDBC; parameter forms would always render as parameters. However, I would also like to see users be able to say that those criteria literal forms should be treated as parameters. The only way I can see that happening is a SF/EMF configuration variable.