Poor-man's enumeration type

Hi All,

I found this in the documentation.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/interactive/datatype-character.html

    The type "char" (note the quotes) is different
    from char(1)in that it only uses one byte of
    storage. It is internally used in the system
    catalogs as a poor-man's enumeration type.

Is this a SQL standard data type?  Can I expect this type
to be supported in PostgreSQL 'forever'?  I need an enum
type and obviously this works.  At the moment I am not
faced with an imminent port but I hate to back myself into
a corner if I do not have to.

--
Kind Regards,
Keith