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Date:      Tue, 2 Sep 2003 11:09:13 -0700
From:      Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
To:        Matthew Graybosch <matthew@starbreaker.net>, Denis Troshin <weiv@mail.ru>
Cc:        freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Ugly Huge BSD Monster
Message-ID:  <200309021109.13459.wes@softweyr.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030901131942.GA20141@christabel.starbreaker.net>
References:  <29508631.20030901165843@mail.ru> <20030901131942.GA20141@christabel.starbreaker.net>

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On Monday 01 September 2003 06:19, Matthew Graybosch wrote:
> On 16:58 Mon 01 Sep     , Denis Troshin wrote:
> > P.S.  Under Windows it is possible to write not bad applications
> > which depend  just  on  libraries (KERNEL32, USER32, GDI32).  And
> > these libs exist on every base system!!!
> >
> > Is it possible in unix?
> >
> > Before I thought that unix programs very compact, but they are
> > huge!
>
> If you want compact unix programs, don't use X apps or apps written
> in scripting languages like Perl and Python. FreeBSD by itself
> doesn't offer the monstrous APIs that Windows offers; it just offers
> an implementation of the standard C library (libc). As a result,
> stock FreeBSD is a very barebones environment.

-bash-2.05b# size /usr/X11R6/bin/axe
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
 111943   15860    4296  132099   20403 /usr/X11R6/bin/axe
-bash-2.05b# ldd !$
ldd /usr/X11R6/bin/axe
/usr/X11R6/bin/axe:
        libXaw3d.so.7 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw3d.so.7 (0x28081000)
        libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x280d4000)
        libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x280e9000)
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x28133000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x2813c000)
        libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4 (0x28152000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x28160000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x2816e000)
        libc.so.4 => /usr/lib/libc.so.4 (0x2822a000)
        libXThrStub.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXThrStub.so.6 (0x282c3000)

aXe is a reasonably functional text editor for X.  Most people these 
days do not consider 111,943 bytes to be exceptionally large.  Some of 
the libraries layered on top of X these days, GNOME and Qt/KDE in 
particular, tend to generate huge programs but that is the way of the 
world.

Programs written in scripting languages like Perl and Python tend to 
favor development time over runtime issues.  Which is better depends on 
the trade-offs in what you are attempting to accomplish.  If you need a 
program this afternoon that does some relatively simple thing and you 
expect to run this program once or twice, spending a few years 
developing it versus a few hours writing a script is a very bad 
tradeoff.

If you need a small program that does some specific task, use your 
favorite search engine.  You will usually find a range of programs and 
can look further for the smallest or otherwise most appropriate one.  I 
guess what I'm trying to say is "do your research, don't rely on 
platitudes and knee-jerk prejudices from people on mailing lists."

And yes, this does belong on -chat.

-- 
         "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                              wes@softweyr.com




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