[Boost-users] Re: Re: Feature request for boost::filesystem

From: Edward Diener (eddielee_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-07-02 22:33:10

Vladimir Prus wrote:
> Edward Diener wrote:
>
>>> 1. Make the library interface templated.
>>> 2. Use narrow classes: e.g. string
>>> 3. Use wide classes: e.g. wstring
>>> 4. Have some class which works with ascii and unicode.
>>>
>>> The first approach is bad for code size reasons. If the library does
>>> substantial work (e.g. HTTP library), it better be dynamic library,
>>> so that applications don't have include all the code. Of course, you
>>> might want static linking, but dynamic linking should be possible
>>> too.
>>
>> One could quite easily provide separate libraries for different
>> character types, if a library was necessary in the first place.
>
> Yea, but whether as two separate file or one file, the size is still
> twice as large. E.g. if on a typical Linux system, just one
> application uses wide version, you have to install both wide and
> narrow version. Here on my box, the size of /usr/lib in 1.2G. Making
> it into 2.4G does not seem right ;-)

Why would you install both a narrow character version and a wide character
version if you are only going to use one or the other ? Of course if you
have applications which use both, you need to install both, but that doesn't
make every application twice as large.