<blockquote><i>number is used in Oracle, numeric in postgres (was someone just pissy?) </i></blockquote>
Good question. Numeric is the SQL92 name for this type, and I do believe Oracle supports both their own legacy "number" and the SQL92 "numeric".
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In part, small stuff like this is due to the fact that aD folks seem to have universally learned SQL via Oracle, and often believe that Oracle IS SQL and could care less about SQL92.
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Certainly valid given their business goals...
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You're right that PG docs generally are sketchy, I've read a lot of the Oracle docs for this reason. Hopefully, Great Bridge (the new PG company) understands that they need to make solid documentation a priority.
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As far as connect by - look at Intranet to see how these have been translated in the past before spending too much effort re-inventing the wheel...
