Three questions regarding PL/PGSQL

Folks,

1. While I am able to use the %TYPE declaration within
PL/PGSQL functions, I am unable to use this declaration in
the parameters for the function -- I get 'Parse Error at or
near "."'

2. When I have a PL/PGSQL function return a custom message
using a VARCHAR return value, I get backslashes in front of
all of the spaces in the message.

3. Given the odd/weak exception handling within the current
Postgres database engine, has anyone developed strategies to
make certain that their PL/PGSQL functions do not perform
inconsistent updates?  If so, can you give some examples?

Anybody (Jan?) who can shed some light on the above will
receive my enthusiastic gratitude in ASCII text.

-Josh Berkus

P.S. I'm using Postgres 7.0.2 on SuSE 7.0 and use pgaccess
extensively for function editing.

P.P.S. My most heartfelt gratitude to Jan Wieck for writing
some decent compile error text into the PL/PGSQL compiler,
and to Constantin Teodorescu for putting a terrific function
editor into pgaccess!