exe file size

[John Reimer]

Hello Bill,

> On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 3:55 PM, John Reimer <terminal.node at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Hello Bill,
>> 
>>> I think the build time of dwt apps is a much bigger issue right now
>>> than the size of exes.  The size of exes can be reduced using hacks
>>> like upx, but there is no fix for the long build times as far as I
>>> know.
>>> 
>>> --bb
>>> 
>> Totally agree.  The size is just an annoyance.  But currently the
>> build times are pretty bad.  Recently, I've been frustrating over
>> this especially while working on the Browser port.  Everytime I want
>> to test a fix, I have to recompile... which takes ages.  This seems
>> to be partly due to the dsss dependency (recent version is sloooow).
>> I've been thinking of adding some sort of shell script or "make" file
>> to see if this can be improved... at least for sanities' sake. :-(
>> 
>> -JJR
>> 
> Build times with the new dsss push me way past the sanity point, so
> I've gone back to 0.76, which I think may have never been released.  I
> think I built it myself from sources.
> 
> Build times with 0.76 are just barely tolerable with my app.  But my
> colleague was telling me today that he wants to do his work on a
> small, non-DWT test app instead of the main app because the build
> times are too frustrating for him.
> 
> If I were forced to use the latest DSSS, I'd defnitely be trying to do
> whatever I could to improve the build times, including using "make" if
> that's what it took.
> 
> Hmm... Now that dmd -v will spit out all the modules imported, it
> might be possible to use that to create a makefile (or a make.deps for
> use by a makefile) automatically.
> 
> --bb
> 


Frank uses 0.75, but I can't get it to work with Tango svn... But it did 
appear to be much quicker than 0.78.  

I noticed just doing a dmd *.c on a DWT directory compiles things pretty 
fast... so that's why I was considering a shell script or make file.  The 
only thing I'd miss is the installation and automatic library creation features 
of dsss.  But I need the speed more.

The dmd -v option has actually been available for quite awhile (a couple 
years?).  "jake", a build tool Kris threw together a year or two ago, makes 
good use of dmd -v import list to do some blazingly fast compiles on windows.

Awhile ago, I had considered porting "jake" to linux (it's C source but with 
win32 functions).  I may have another look at doing that.  DWT really needs 
it.

-JJR