Mario Becroft <pgsql@becroft.co.nz> writes:
> The problem is that when inserting to the view, default values do not
> work as expected.
You need to attach the defaults to the view, viz
ALTER TABLE a ALTER COLUMN bar SET DEFAULT 5;
This is considered a feature not a bug, since you might want a
different default for inserts to the view than for inserts
directly to the underlying table.
regards, tom lane