Casting Point to Text

Hi all,

PG 7.4 beta4 (not had a chance to upgrade yet :-(

how do i cast something of type point to text?

db=# select '(1,2)'::point::text;
ERROR: cannot cast type point to text
db=# select text('(1,2)'::point);
ERROR: function text(point) does not exist
HINT: No function matches the given name and argument types. You may need to
add explicit type casts.

the only way i have been able to achieve it is to write a plpgsql function:
create function to_s(point) returns text as 'begin return $1; end;' language
plpgsql;

while this appears to work fine - I am wondering if I am missing something
fundamental - specifically whether or not there is an inbuilt way to do it
(which I guess there must be for the plpgsql function to work)?

thanks for your help
Martin