Implicit conversion bugaboo in beta2?

Guys,

got this problem in 7.4 beta 2:

treedemo=# SELECT  LPAD ((team_name), (LENGTH(team_name) + (3*(tlevel-2)))) AS
teams_display,team_id, lnode
treedemo-# FROM teams
treedemo-# WHERE lnode > 0
treedemo-# ORDER BY lnode;
ERROR:  function lpad(character varying, bigint) does not exist

(the above query worked fine in 7.3.4, as I recall)

treedemo=# \df lpad
               List of functions
 Result data type | Name | Argument data types
------------------+------+---------------------
 text             | lpad | text, integer
 text             | lpad | text, integer, text


Now, I've been in favor of reducing problematic implicit conversions.  But
VARCHAR --> TEXT is one that needs to stay, as there's no possibility of
ambiguity, and most users count on doing it transparently.

Either that, or we need to build all string function for varchar.

--
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco