The discussion of bytea in section 8.4,
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/datatype-binary.html
is obsolete because it assumes that standard_conforming_strings is
always OFF. It could be very much simpler and shorter if
standard_conforming_strings were always ON, but that's not reality
either. Anyone have an idea on how to rewrite it in a way that
isn't awkward, incomprehensible, or both?
regards, tom lane