auto generated keys

Would I be right in assuming the calls relating to retrieving auto generated
keys are non-trivial to implement?

I have a somewhat klunky hack in an application which immediately after
inserting a row into a table with a "serial" for the primary key I do a
select based on values I know to be unique (at least for the table in
question).  I also thought about managing the sequence numbers
programmatically but the other method worked out ok.

So
    a) Any ideas about the timeframe for auto generated key retrieval?

    b) Is there a "recommended" method for retrieving auto generated keys
with PostgreSQL and JDBC?

paul