[boost] Re: Re: Regexp code bloat

From: Eugene Lazutkin (eugene.lazutkin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-10-25 14:16:48

"John Maddock" <jm_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
news:007701c27c1d$aceb6900$f43387d9_at_1016031671...
>
> Static linking to boost.regex with VC7 seems to add about 50K in the
minimal
> case with VC7, is that still too much for an ActiveX?

As far as I remember it was more than that but you don't need to ask me
about acceptability. Divide 50k by 3k/s and you will get time you will wait
for download using 28800 modem --- the most popular :-( device used to
access Internet. The question would be: "Are you willing to wait extra 17
seconds in order to allow some developers to use stock library for simple
things instead of hard-coding it?" And you should ask average user about
that. The truth is that average user will go for the latter. Of course,
there is no free lunch and functionality costs some size. I am just saying
that the less is the better providing we have what we want. :-) And
libraries, which are posed to be widely used, should take special care about
size (and speed, and flexibility, and...) --- you know it better than me.

> > I agree with Andrei that user/developer should not be "punished" for
> > functionality, which is not used. In fact C++ was built upon this kind
of
> > philosophy. Regex++ and Greta are great libraries but they should
support
> > the same philosophical concept as well to be truly universal.
>
> Accepted, but this is like saying that I don't want my C++ compiler to
> support features that I never use (cause the program files are too big),
> both are interpreters at the end of the day.  As Andrei says to can do
this
> with preprocessing, but it sure is a pain...

Again, you are making the same mistake as in previous paragraph. There is a
difference between taxing developer and taxing user. If you tell me, that
C++ compiler needs supercomputer to run, I will complain and ... comply to
the best of my abilities. If you say that end user should have supercomputer
to run C++ programs, I will complain and switch immediately to other
language. :-)

Basically, I can live with extended requirements for development computers,
long compilation time, even relatively obscure way to specify regular
expressions, as long as it improves end user's experience. It should _not_
affect end user in any negative way.

Thanks,

Eugene