Moving from Sybase to PostgreSQL - Stored Procedures

Hi,

I'm moving from Sybase to pgsql but have problems with stored procedures.
The typical procedure uses

a) named parameters,
b) local variable declarations and assignments
c) transactions
d) cursors, views, etc.

I can't seem to find these things in the Postgres function syntax.
Procedures can be as long as 20-250 lines, performing heavy data
manipulation tasks, running from a few seconds up to several hours. Database
size is approx. 20GB.

Functions in pgsql are very limited compared to Sybase procedures, so I'll
have to find a workaround somehow. Perhaps somebody can point me to examples
or hints regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance!

Andre