Compiler: Size of generated executable file

[Walter Bright]

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.


> 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.


> My understanding of the "no shared library" problem of D was not that it 
> was an anti-dll-hell feature but actually an unsolved problem with 
> sharing the GC.  If you are saying that even if someone solves the GC 
> sharing problem that D still will produce mostly static exes, you might 
> as well take D out back and shoot it now.  I don't see any businesses 
> using a language that is 15 years behind the curve in library 
> production.  If it were a problem that couldn't be solved, then there 
> would be lots of languages that have that problem.

It's true that nobody has spent the effort to do this. Anyone is welcome 
to step up and work on it.

> On all your other points, I agree that installs these days are bigger 
> more because of media than binaries.  I do have a problem with that in 
> some cases.  I don't want my scanner driver software to install 500MB of 
> crap that I will never use when all I want to do is scan documents with 
> a simple interface.  I don't need "skins" for my word processor or help 
> videos on how to use my mouse.  Just install the shit that does the 
> work, and leave the rest of my hard drive alone :)

Heh, dlls won't solve that problem. I upgraded Nero to support a new dvd 
drive, and what the heck, a 20Mb install turned into - 360Mb !!