dev-cpp-users

[Dev-C++] GCC 3.2 (MinGW 2.0) Compiled File Sizes

[Marc H. <ma...@e-...>]

Hi All,

I have just downloaded and installed MinGW 2.0 to upgrade my development
environment to the latest (easily available) GCC. The installation =
process
was surprisingly painless and getting it to work with Dev-Cpp was just =
as
easy. Good stuff so far. But...

I just wrote a command line program that does a little string =
manipulation
and spits out (read as cout << (std::string)) a modified string (using =
the
command line parameters as input). The complete source is less 100 lines =
of
code and resides in a single file. I make use of the <iostream> and =
<string>
headers. I compiled and found it worked perfectly, but the executable =
was
468KB in size! I was expecting something more along the lines of 10KB. =
So I
tried the following little program:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	std::string s =3D "Hello, World";
	std::cout << s;
	return 0;
}

This simple "Hello, World" demo compiles to 442KB (using default =
compiler
settings, no optimization, no exception handling - and 156KB using the =
old
Dev-Cpp default compiler). This is a little extreme, don't you think?

So does anyone know of a way to reduce the file sizes generated by GCC =
3.2?
The only thing that springs to mind is that the template class handling =
of
GCC is not that great. If we try the same demo using C-code (compiled as
C++):

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	char* s =3D "Hello, World";
	printf("%s", s);
	return 0;
}

we get a program that compiles to 21KB (and 9KB using the old Default
Dev-Cpp compiler - even this shows a large increase in size using GCC =
3.2)!=20

Regards,
Marc.

RE: [Dev-C++] GCC 3.2 (MinGW 2.0) Compiled File Sizes

[Ioannis V. <iv...@em...>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dev...@li...=20
> [mailto:dev...@li...] On Behalf=20
> Of Marc Heiligers
> Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 8:04 PM
> To: Dev-Cpp User's List
> Subject: [Dev-C++] GCC 3.2 (MinGW 2.0) Compiled File Sizes
>=20
>=20
> I just wrote a command line program that does a little string=20
> manipulation
> and spits out (read as cout << (std::string)) a modified=20
> string (using the
> command line parameters as input). The complete source is=20
> less 100 lines of
> code and resides in a single file. I make use of the=20
> <iostream> and <string>
> headers. I compiled and found it worked perfectly, but the=20
> executable was
> 468KB in size! I was expecting something more along the lines=20
> of 10KB. So I
> tried the following little program:
>=20
> #include <iostream>
> #include <string>
>=20
> int main(int argc, char *argv[])
> {
> 	std::string s =3D "Hello, World";
> 	std::cout << s;
> 	return 0;
> }
>=20
> This simple "Hello, World" demo compiles to 442KB (using=20
> default compiler
> settings, no optimization, no exception handling - and 156KB=20
> using the old
> Dev-Cpp default compiler). This is a little extreme, don't you think?


Yes, g++ has been entirely rewritten and produces more bloated code... I
guess mainly because they use bloated header files (their system =
extensions
must be collected to few header files).


>=20
> So does anyone know of a way to reduce the file sizes=20
> generated by GCC 3.2?


Only the optimisation switches.



> The only thing that springs to mind is that the template=20
> class handling of
> GCC is not that great. If we try the same demo using C-code=20
> (compiled as
> C++):
>=20
> #include <stdio.h>
>=20
> int main(int argc, char *argv[])
> {
> 	char* s =3D "Hello, World";
> 	printf("%s", s);
> 	return 0;
> }
>=20
> we get a program that compiles to 21KB (and 9KB using the old Default
> Dev-Cpp compiler - even this shows a large increase in size=20
> using GCC 3.2)!=20


I think we can be sure that as time passes things will get improving. =
That's
all. :-)






Ioannis Vranos
=20
* Programming pages: http://www.noicys.freeurl.com
* Alternative URL 1: http://run.to/noicys
* Alternative URL 2: http://www.noicys.cjb.net

Re: [Dev-C++] GCC 3.2 (MinGW 2.0) Compiled File Sizes

[Daniel K. O. <dan...@ya...>]

Marc Heiligers wrote:

> So does anyone know of a way to reduce the file sizes generated by GCC 3.2?


Try:

Switches: -s -Os

And:
strip -s <exename>
upx -9 <exename>


("strip.exe" should be on your mingw bin dir, and UPX you can find on 
SourceForge)

I have them both on my Tools menu.
The C++ hello world now is 71.5 KB :)


g++ is not toooo bloated, I compiled some big (well... not toooo big, 
but bigger than a hello world... 15~20K lines :P ) projetcts, and the 
size (with -O2 switch, and no strip/upx) is usually less than 100 KB 
bigger than the binaries compiled with VC++ (dunno what version). It 
seems acceptable to me. :)




Daniel K. O.

Re: [Dev-C++] GCC 3.2 (MinGW 2.0) Compiled File Sizes

[<or...@vp...>]

Daniel K. O. wrote:
> g++ is not toooo bloated, I compiled some big (well... not toooo big, 
> but bigger than a hello world... 15~20K lines :P ) projetcts, and the 
> size (with -O2 switch, and no strip/upx) is usually less than 100 KB 
> bigger than the binaries compiled with VC++ (dunno what version). It 
> seems acceptable to me. :)

g++ "itself" is not bloated. I mean, it doesn't make bloated code, but 
the use of it's STL or something tends to make huge exes. Even if you 
make a really huge project, without iostream (just stdio.h and stuff), 
the result can still be small, however if you make even the smallest 
program, BUT you use iostream, then you get huge exe. This is really 
weird indeed, but that's what we have to live with.

--
Greetings,
   Balázs