The attached addresses items#2 and 3 as listed by Bruce here:
http://momjian.us/cgi-bin/pgsql/joe
I think it is consistent with the discussions we had a PGCon last week.
Any objections to me committing this for 8.4?
On a side note, should I try to address items #1 & #4 for 8.4 as well?
Perhaps #4 yes since it is arguably a bug fix, but no to #1?
Joe