Lib change leads to larger executables

[Sean Kelly]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Sean Kelly wrote:
>> Sean Kelly wrote:
>>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>>> John Reimer wrote:
>>>>> optlink may just be the bane for D acceptance. And Tango gets the 
>>>>> pitiful
>>>>> opportunity of demonstrating why D is NOT ready for prime-time in the
>>>>> commercial realm: the DM support tools it relies on are bogged down in
>>>>> the past, reflecting D's lopsided existance on yet another level: a 
>>>>> strong
>>>>> language relying on a fragile, outdated, and poorly fit tool set.
>>>>
>>>> Linux's ld exhibits the same behavior. Try compiling the 3 files 
>>>> here according to the instructions below, and try different 
>>>> orderings adding the object files to the librarian (ar). The same 
>>>> behavior as lib/optlink results (using nm to see what symbols are 
>>>> placed into the resulting executable).
>>>
>>> In your example, no symbols at all from a is referenced in b or in 
>>> test, and yet it's linked anyway in the first case?
>>
>> Forget I said that.  It's the TypeInfo for char[][].
> 
> That's right, it picked the FIRST ONE in library, regardless of how many 
> other .o's defined it, and regardless of what else was in that .o, 
> referenced or not.

That makes complete sense.  It's irritating that such matches pull in 
the entire object, but at least the process is straightforward and logical.