What can be done to reduce executable size?

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2011-12-11 23:55, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Sunday, December 11, 2011 17:28:58 Adam Ruppe wrote:
>> Jacob Carlborg Wrote:
>>> As long as the runtime and standard library is statically linked the
>>> executables will be bigger than the corresponding C/C++ executable.
>>
>> I just want to say it's very important to me that static linking
>> still just works very easily even if we start to offer dynamic linking.
>
> Most definitely. I consider dynamic linking to be a necessary evil which should
> not be used unless you have to. I _much_ prefer having my programs completely
> self-contained. The less that they rely on in terms of external libraries the
> better. Sure, there are plenty of cases where dynamic libraries are necessary
> (e.g. plugins), and the fact that they generally reduce disk space consumption
> is useful, but it's _so_ nice to not have to worry about the exact versions of
> everything else installed on the system.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

It is very nice to not have to think about external dependencies when 
installing a tool or library, but as you say for plugins it is 
important. I would hope that it is possible to have the application 
completely statically linked but at the same time provide plugins for 
the application.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg