The latest is I experienced numerous problems trying to do things from the
psql prompt, which means my idea of simulating that with a script wouldn't
work. I mistakenly entered "createdb mydb" at that prompt and got no
response. I forgot the order of things I did after that, but I saw that same
error about pg_hba.config not being set up correctly when it was, I tried
entering "createdb mydb" at the cygwin command prompt and got no response,
and I get no response with "psql -U postgres template1" now too.
I'm now afraid that I'd end up destroying my data somehow once I get to the
hard part, and I'm not even going to try any more. PostgreSQL will be
uninstalled in the morning.
I'm sure glad I was able to teach myself Perl and complete a complex 3500
line script or I'd think there was something wrong with me.