Re: Code size of Ada ? was Re: Ada95 Strengths/Weaknesses.

[kilgallen@eisner.decus.org (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <7srnb9$2u3$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> writes:

> The size of large programs is a concern, but measuring the
> size of hello world programs has nothing at all to do with
> the size of real programs, since what you are really
> concentrating on here is the default size of the minimal
> run-time library.
> 
> This can be important in e.g. safety critical embedded
> applications, where the appropriate approach is to use the
> No_Run_Time facility of GNAT (GNORT) to eliminate the run
> time entirely.
> 
> Note that the original note here worried about performance,
> which is of course a completely different issue, and it was
> really that issue which I was addressing, I simply can't
> get to excited about saving hundredths of cents worth of
> disk for the image of a hello world program :-)

Although many people have written small programs for test
purposes, most of them run those programs in environments
tuned for running much larger programs.  In fact, if you
run a trivial program on a capable operating system it will
incur all sorts of overhead setting up for the possibility
of multiple DLLs, etc. that are never needed for "Hello World".

So a bare machine will indeed provide the most efficient
environment for "Hello World", so long as your calculations
value your own time as worth zero.

For a truly efficient solution, use a pencil to write
"Hello World" on a piece of paper and be done with it.

Larry Kilgallen