Gokulakannan Somasundaram <gokul007@gmail.com> writes:
>> Actually, if you need to squeeze a few more bits into that word, the
>> thing to do would be to get rid of storing the tuple length there.
>> This would involve adding the same type of indirection header that
>> we use for HeapTuples, so that the length would be available at need
>> without going back to the item pointer. I
> I feel the other one is easy. To store the hint bits inside the ItemId, in
> the place of size.
No, we're not going there. That breaks the fundamental page content
manipulation algorithms, and falls down for tuples not yet stored in a
page (or being examined without a pointer to the page readily at hand),
and has no redeeming social value anyway compared to doing it in the
proven fashion.
regards, tom lane