simulating global temp tables in plpgsql functions

Hi,

Once again I'm translating an oracle stored proc that uses a global
temporary table. Using postgresql's nonglobal temp tables from plpgsql
functions is painful - translating all the queries into strings passed
to execute. It is error prone, and it makes the queries less readable,
thus less maintainable. Plus, the temp tables have to be created per
postgresql connection, and not recreated if they already exist (making
connection pooling code more complicated).

So, the other option is to create a normal table and insert & query with
a unique key, to avoid collisions with other copies of the stored
function that might be executing at the same time. Is anyone else doing
this? Does anyone have suggestions for how this might be accomplished
safely?

Finally, is there any thought to adding global temp tables to
postgresql? They would make life SO much easier for those of us porting
from Oracle.

Dennis
dennis(at)illusions(dot)com