getColumnDisplayWidth() returns 0x7fffffff for char varying

This may not be a JDBC issue, but I encountered it using JDBC and a remote host

My installation is:
DBMS: PostgreSQL 8.3.4 (Windows XP)
JDBC Driver: PostgreSQL Native Driver PostgreSQL 8.4devel JDBC4 (build 700)

I have a current build and have run the test suite:

runtest:
    [junit] Testsuite: org.postgresql.test.jdbc2.Jdbc2TestSuite
    [junit] Tests run: 270, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 99.485 sec

    [junit] Testsuite: org.postgresql.test.jdbc2.optional.OptionalTestSuite
    [junit] Tests run: 40, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 8.125 sec

    [junit] Testsuite: org.postgresql.test.jdbc3.Jdbc3TestSuite
    [junit] Tests run: 65, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 7.859 sec

    [junit] Testsuite: org.postgresql.test.xa.XATestSuite
    [junit] Tests run: 8, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 1.407 sec

    [junit] Testsuite: org.postgresql.test.jdbc4.Jdbc4TestSuite
    [junit] Tests run: 24, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Time elapsed: 2.296 sec


test:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

My problem is that getColumnDisplayWidth() returns the widths

column(1) uname(2147483647)
column(2) pass(2147483647)
column(3) timestamp(11)
column(4) icon1(11)
column(5) icon2(11)
column(6) icon3(11)
column(7) type(11)
column(8) creation(11)
column(9) until(11)
column(10) canxfer(1)

for the following table:

CREATE TABLE vcnmaster
(
  uname character varying NOT NULL,
  pass character varying,
  "timestamp" integer,
  icon1 integer,
  icon2 integer,
  icon3 integer,
  "type" integer,
  creation integer,
  "until" integer,
  canxfer boolean,
  CONSTRAINT vcnmasterkey PRIMARY KEY (uname)
)
WITH (OIDS=FALSE);

Is this expected behavior?

Thanks.

Dan

PS.  I can provide an Ethereal capture of the interaction if needed.