In my mind there were two categories of open issues

  a) ones that are 100% backward (such as the comment about
     outputting this format)
and
  b) ones that aren't (such as deprecating the current
     postgresql shorthand of
         '1Y1M'::interval = 1 year 1 minute
     in favor of the ISO-8601
         'P1Y1M'::interval = 1 year 1 month.

Attached is a patch that addressed all the discussed issues that
did not break backward compatability, including the ability to
output ISO-8601 compliant intervals by setting datestyle to
iso8601basic.

Interval values can now be written as  ISO 8601 time intervals, using
the "Format with time-unit designators". This format always starts with
the character 'P', followed  by a string of values followed
by single character time-unit designators. A 'T' separates the date and
time parts of the interval.

Ron Mayer