what is the meaning of "schema"?

My understanding of "schema" that I discovered
in 7.3 (I don't think they were available before)
is that you can have two tables with the same name
if they are in different schemas.

I have done a google search, as well as archive search
but

pg_dump and pg_dumpall are broken if a database
contains schemas.

First of all if there are two tables with the same
name in different schemas pg_dump only dumps out
one table. There is no way to dump other tables
and I have checked pg_dump man page

Restoring a pg_dumpall is now a nightmare because

I had as superuser

# create schema test authorization httpd

on a database not owned by database owner.
And it works merrily until the time to
dump and restore.

pg_dumpall answers to above create authorization is

\connect - httpd

create schema test

Hell breaks lose with that! Because httpd cannot
create schema on a database that it does not own.
Why couldn't pg_dumpall does

create schema test authorization httpd

as superuser when the schema was created in that
fashion?

I really don't think anyone is going to pay attention
to this rant since these list does not like/answer anonymous posts
but I have to post just so some poor soul might find
it in the archive and be warned.

My current versions are 7.3.2 and 7.3.3 and I have been using
posgres since 7.1 and consider myself experienced with postgres

Schemas are the best thing since slice breads but
the baker decided to poison the bread. Nice!

Thanks

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