Our Luxurious, Rubinesque, Python 2.4

[Larry Hastings]

I finally got 'round to installing Python 2.4. I'm planning on using
Python for downloadable software, where every kilobyte counts and
smaller is definitely better. Imagine my surprise when I looked up
python24.dll and found SWEET JUMPING CHRISTMAS it's ballooned up to
1.8MB!

This isn't a deal-killer outright. But python23.dll is 1.0MB, svelte
by comparison.

Can someone tell me what made it 80% larger? Also, how much would I be
able to trim away if I recompiled it myself? Is a lot of it native
implementations of Python libraries that I might not care about
including, or is it all fundamental VM stuff that couldn't possibly be
removed?

Thanks,
/larry/

[Jeff Epler]

In my experience, when built with the same compiler (gcc 3.3.3) the size
of the python library file (libpython2.x.a on unix machines) hasn't
changed much between 2.3, 2.4, and current CVS:
-rw-r--r-- 1 jepler jepler 950426 Mar 31 21:37 libpython2.3.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jepler jepler 1002158 Mar 31 21:36 libpython2.4.a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jepler jepler 1001982 Mar 31 21:36 libpython2.5.a

Between Python 2.3 and 2.4, the python.org people switched to a
different version of the Microsoft C compiler. Perhaps this is (part
of) the explanation.

Jeff

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[Martin v. Löwis]

Larry Hastings wrote:

Can someone tell me what made it 80% larger?
python24.dll includes many of the extension modules that were separate
..pyd files in 2.3, namely _csv, _sre, _symtable, _winreg, datetime,
mmap, and parser, i.e. all extension modules that don't require specific
libraries. Furthermore, a few builtin modules where added to 2.4 that
were not present in 2.3 at all.
Also, how much would I be able to trim away if
I recompiled it myself?
Hard to tell. I think people have been able to get it down to 180k.
Is a lot of it native
implementations of Python libraries that I might not care about
including, or is it all fundamental VM stuff that couldn't possibly be
removed?

No. Most of it is modules, followed by objects. Removing modules is
easy; removing objects is more difficult: while you could make a Python
interpreter easily that does not support complex numbers, it is much
harder to build a Python interpreter that does not support weak
references.

Regards,
Martin

[Kay Schluehr]

Larry Hastings wrote:

Also, how much would I be
able to trim away if I recompiled it myself? Is a lot of it native
implementations of Python libraries that I might not care about
including, or is it all fundamental VM stuff that couldn't possibly be removed?

In Pythons config.c file You can determine which ext-modules will be
compiled into the core. I estimate that a lean core would have a size
around ~600kb. Trimming down further may become hard because You may
have to decide what to sacrifice: tuples, classes or objects ;)

Regards,
Kay