Compiler: Size of generated executable file

[Lutger]

On 01/12/2010 11:40 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>> I hope this is not a permanent situation. Shared libraries (not
>> necessarily DLLs) help reduce the memory usage of all the programs on
>> the system that use the same libraries, and the footprint of the
>> binaries.
>
> That would be reasonable once we can get libphobos installed on linux
> distributions. Right now, it's easier for users to not have to deal with
> version hell for shared libraries. Static linking of phobos does not
> impair using D, so it is a lower priority.

That could be a nice goal after D2 is released, but how to handle the 
fact that dmd is not open source? Some distro's will probably not accept 
it in standard repositories. I think this is unfortunate, since a wider 
linux distribution could attract more developers.

>> The "DLL hell" versioning problem AFAIK is only on Windows,
>
> My experience is different. There are two C shared libraries in common
> use on Linux. If I link dmd to one, one group of dmd users gets annoyed,
> if I link with the other, the other half gets annoyed. There's no decent
> solution.

The preferred solution with a linux system generally is to go all the 
way: let the distro packagers handle the dependencies and make them 
build dmd. Or have some community build distro specific packages for 
you. Both require a redistribution license however, and usually an open 
source one.