[boost] Re: Regexp code bloat

From: Andrei Alexandrescu (andrewalex_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-10-24 11:16:39

"Edward Diener" <eddielee_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
news:ap93ub$acj$1_at_main.gmane.org...
> A size of 500 KB is non-negligible but given the multi-megabyte and 700K
or
> so modules you quote above, I think you are overreacting to size in and of
> itself. Look at the size of language vendor shared libraries nowadays.
They
> are easily 500K on my system ( W2K ) and often into the multi-megabyte
area.
> Distributions with rich functionality often run to 3,4,5 megabytes if not
> more. This too me is common.

500 KB is huge for a package that ONLY does regular expressions. Let's take
a look at libraries:

wininet.dll: 570 KB (includes HTTP parser, FTP state machine, URL parser...)
mshtml.dll: 2,695 KB (a lot of IE)
msjet40.dll: 1,469 KB (database engine, includes SQL parser)
mfc70.dll: 952 KB (the whole darling MFC compiled as a dll)
msvcrt20.dll: 248 KB (The ENTIRE C standard library)

I rest my case.

> I think size as a matter of inelegant and/or irrelevant code and bad
design
> is important, but not size as a matter in and of itself.

Of course. Without even looking, if my only option to use regex++ or greta
for *any* regexp need (no matter how simple!) is to deal with a 500 KB
gorilla, then...

> > The current
> > perception is that when it comes about string manipulation and I/O, C++
is
> > primitive and arcane.
>
> The current perception is wrong

What's wrong about it? Show me ONE guy who says: "I'm a fan of iostreams!"
I/O in C++ sucks. String manipulation in C++ is at the substr() and
replace() level.

Andrei

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