1) I agree with Michael that we should make this change backward compatible. It would help PostgreSQL image if we did not break everyone's code. It costs businesses money to rewrite code (e.g. middle tier software, backup tools, etc), test and redeploy to their customers.
2) We decided to rename the pg_xlog directory because people were deleting it when disks were getting full thinking it was just unimportant logging data; I get that. I'm a little unclear why we need to change the functions - it would be less painful to our users and less risky if we just left them as is. Could someone please elaborate why this change is necessary? I'm just trying to understand that.
Thanks,
-Cynthia