Object.factory() and exe file size bloat

[Vladimir Panteleev via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 21 August 2015 at 05:06:47 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> This function:
>
>   http://dlang.org/phobos/object.html#.Object.factory
>
> enables a program to instantiate any class defined in the 
> program. To make it work, though, every class in the program 
> has to have a TypeInfo generated for it. This leads to bloat:
>
>   https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14758
>
> and sometimes the bloat can be overwhelming.
>
> The solution seems straightforward - only have Object.factory 
> be able to instantiate classes marked as 'export'. This only 
> makes sense anyway.
>
> What do you think?

An alternative which would be more work but wouldn't break code 
would be to put the "all the classes" structure in a separate 
section, which is only referenced by Object.factory. Thus, the 
structure will be GC-ed by the linker, unless Object.factory is 
actually used somewhere in the program.

Not sure how this would tie in with shared objects though. Maybe 
this needs to be combined with your "export" idea.