16 parameter

I am certain this question has been asked and answered, but I didn't find the FAQ and
the search feature on the website is "under construction." I apologize in advance.

I am writing my first program in pgsql. My environment is OpenACS 4.5 beta1. While writing
this program I need to create a function (actually, what I really need is an Oracle
procedure with named -- rather than positional -- parameters) that has one paramenter
for each attribute in my table. The error message is that only 16 parameters are allowed.
A little investigative work has uncovered that the 16 parameters is a compile time
option, yet I want to be able to distribute my code latter without my end users having
to recompile.

I further checked the TODO list, there is nothing that mentions ANY improvements to
the pgsql language, yet I would think that named parameters, default values and
more parameters would be near the top of the list. I guess I am very surprised because
pgpsql is extremely functional, yet there doesn't seem to be any effort to improve it.

How are folks handling this situation? Are you using a non-standard data type to
pgpsql is extremely functional, yet there doesn't seem to be any effort to improve it.

How are folks handling this situation? Are you using a non-standard data type to
pass some kind of array or list to your pgsql function to get around the 16
parameter limit? Why not up the default for the distribution? Does performance
suffer? Is anyone developing any serious applications with pgsql, or even porting
over some Oracle apps? Is anyone improving this language to make it more
developer friendly?

I apologize that I could not take the time to properly orient myself to your list
before posting. Feel free to orient me by fire if these comments are in the wrong
spot.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew Lahser
andrew(at)apl-software(dot)com