The reason I care so much about reducing file size is because file size can have a lot to do when determining if a program will sink or swim.
Example: My program, when compressed, comes out to about 1.38 MBs. In today's age that file size is OK, but a lot of people still think in terms of life on the internet before broadband. Those terms were, if it's smaller, they'll download it first.
I know that example quite well in that I always download the smallest program first. Nothing makes me squirm more than seeing a program, such as an FTP program, with a download size of 8.1 MBs. With a size that big, I'll download the 433 KB ftp program first.
I agree that smaller files can make for a more attractive download, and I do feel it's important to keep an eye on the size of the engine for that reason.
But on balance I believe a 2MB engine is generally acceptable for all but the most trivial of apps whose functionality wouldn't warrant much in the way of payment anyway.
Many of my commercial apps are less than 1MB in stack file size; with the engine they approach 3MB. Compared to the simplest of utilities that may be big -- or is it?
Check out this random sampling of popular OS X apps (these are .app sizes only, not counting any additonal examples, etc.):
Tex-Edit Plus: 5.6MB Freeway LE: 8.8MB Interarchy: 9.8MB Apple iChat: 10.5MB LimeWire: 13.2MB Apple DVD Player: 13.2MB Fax STF: 14.1MB FireFox: 25.2MB Apple iTunes: 29.8MB Thunderbird: 33.9MB AOL client: 46.5MB Acrobat Reader: 77.5MB
And my personal favorite bloat example: Apple's OS X Calculator: 3.1MB (the OS 9 version was <8k) So much for the "efficiency" of the "shared" Cocoa framework, eh? :)
This is not to suggest that anything less than 77.5MB is cool. But it does show that where the application's functionality rewards the downloader, the download will happen.
Compared to these "modern" Cocoa-based apps, the Rev engine look very, very slender.
Let's just hope it doesn't get much larger. Taking steps today to build toward a future of modular components will allow nearly infinite functionality to be addable at no cost to engine size (it may actually make for a smaller engine for some apps).
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation __________________________________________________ Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
