BIT column gets converted to a Buffer object instead of a boolean

[octogonz]

Repro steps:

1. Create a table with a BIT column:

     CREATE TABLE `example` (
   `id` INT(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   `boolExample` BIT(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT b'0',
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`) USING BTREE,
   )

2. Insert some rows in the table

3. Use the mariadb NPM package to query the rows:

    const result = await connection.query('SELECT * FROM example');

Expected: The result[0].boolExample value should be a familiar JavaScript type such as true or false

Actual: The value is returned as Node.js Buffer, which requires an awkward boolean conversion such as result[0].boolExample.readInt8() !== 0.

[octogonz]

🤔 Reading the docs more closely, BIT supports arrays of bits. So maybe it would be counterintuitive for an array-of-length-one to be treated as boolean.

Seems like a better solution is to change my SQL schema to use INT for representing boolean values instead of BIT.