trouble caused by change in 7.3 handling of '' in integer context

I see in the 7.3 HISTORY file this:

     * An empty string ('') is no longer allowed as the input into an
       integer field. Formerly, it was silently interpreted as 0.

This is causing major issues with the Request Tracker program
<http://www.bestpractical.com/rt>.

The author has gone so far as to notify all current users that
Postgres 7.3 is not usable with RT, and to stick to 7.2, or to use
MySQL.

Apparently, there is a lot of work that will be necessary to retrofit
RT to this change.  Is there any way possible to make this a logged
warning rather than a fatal so that there is time to transition the RT
code?  I didn't see any notice in any prior release of the upcoming
change.

This unfortunately locks me into the 7.2 line until (if) RT can be
fixed up, and I could really use the 7.3 improvements for my other
applications.

Thanks.

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Vivek Khera, Ph.D.                Khera Communications, Inc.
Internet: khera@kciLink.com       Rockville, MD       +1-240-453-8497
AIM: vivekkhera Y!: vivek_khera   http://www.khera.org/~vivek/