Using Aliases in function

[scryo]

Hy,

I'm surprised that I can't use aliases in function !!!
I use MySQL 4.1.9 and this query (for example) doesn't function :

SELECT NAME n
FROM ENGINEER e
ORDER BY UPPER(n)

It's very strange and not cool. In fact, what is the real interest of aliases, except on joints ?!
I must use an aliase because I use it on a subquery which looks like this :
SELECT (SELECT f.NAME FROM FUNCTION f WHERE f.ID=e.FUNCTION) n
FROM ENGINEER e
ORDER BY UPPER(n)

and I won't put again a subquery in the ORDER clause.

And why MySQL didn't implement this function, however very useful ?

Thanks

(Sorry for my english, I'm not english)