While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is about 18 megs 
in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.

Is this in line with what others have seen, or am I missing some switch?

I'm configuring the "Release" Build Configuration.  And I'm right-clicking 
on "Release" in the Project Manager and selecting Build.

I haven't been able to find any addition project options to bring this 
number down:

Current Configuration:

Emit RTTI: False
Debug info: False
Map file: Off
Include Remote debug symbols:
{$WEAKLINKRTTI ON} in all my units. (But did not recompile system units...)
{$RTTI EXPLICIT METHODS([]) PROPERTIES([]) FIELDS([])} at the top of .dpr

Are there any other suggestions other than UPX?

Is rebuilding the VCL/RTL with RTTI worth looking into?

Links on this topic:

https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?threadID=24416
http://blogs.embarcadero.com/michaelrozlog/2009/08/31/36979#comment-1400
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/WEAKLINKRTTI_directive_%28Delphi%29
http://www.nexusdb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15516
http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/content/articles_programming_delphi2010rtti - 
rebuilding VCL/RTL
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2150025/how-to-achieve-smaller-size-of-the-executable

Tom Field wrote:

> While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is about
> 18 megs in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.
> 
> Is this in line with what others have seen, or am I missing some
> switch?

No. The RTL and VCL has added quite a bit of stuff since D7, the fact
that all strings are Unicode also adds a bit (all string literals
stored are now twice the size), the new extended RTTI also adds quite a
bit (which you cannot all remove).

> Is rebuilding the VCL/RTL with RTTI worth looking into?

You cannot do that anyway.



-- 
Peter Below (TeamB)  
Don't be a vampire (http://slash7.com/pages/vampires), 
use the newsgroup archives :
http://codenewsfast.com
http://groups.google.com

> {quote:title=Peter Below wrote:}{quote}
> Tom Field wrote:
> 
> > While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is about
> > 18 megs in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.
> > 
> > Is this in line with what others have seen, or am I missing some
> > switch?
> 
> No. The RTL and VCL has added quite a bit of stuff since D7, the fact
> that all strings are Unicode also adds a bit (all string literals
> stored are now twice the size), the new extended RTTI also adds quite a
> bit (which you cannot all remove).
> 
> > Is rebuilding the VCL/RTL with RTTI worth looking into?

> You cannot do that anyway.
> 
> 

Thanks, Peter.  Growing a bit from 18 megs I'd understand, but to 35 was really surprising. It's hard to image that changes to the code generation or to Unicode strings could account for that much growth!

As for rebuilding the VCL/RTL, this guy >  [link|http://www.zipplet.co.uk/index.php/content/articles_programming_delphi2010rtti]  seemed to think it could be done. I was hesitant to touch the core library and figured it wouldn't have helped much anyway...

Thanks again (for this answer and for all the contributions you've given to the Delphi community!)

Edited by: Tom Field on Jun 18, 2010 11:11 AM

Hello,

Tom Field wrote:

> Is rebuilding the VCL/RTL with RTTI worth looking into?

it depends. Personally, about every single other task I have is more
important than to reduce the executable size of my applications.

-- 
Moritz

"Hey, it compiles! Ship it!"

Tom Field wrote:

> While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is about
> 18 megs in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.

Just wondering: 

1) how many source lines are reported after doing a build (see Project
-> Information for <appname>)?

2) how many dfm-files do you have in this project and what is the total
size of these dfm-files.

-- 
Pieter

"It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren't, then I'd be
 a teacher." -- Linda Evangelista.

"Tom Field" wrote
> While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is
> about 18 megs in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.

What is the smallest Delphi 2010 "Hello World" program?

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  Edit1.Text := 'Hello World from D5';
end;

With debug checking turned on 
In D5 it is 297K bytes and
in D7 it is 373K bytes.

--JohnH

Am 19.06.2010 05:12, schrieb John Herbster:
> "Tom Field" wrote
>> While migrating from Delphi 7, I have a program whose .exe is
>> about 18 megs in Delphi 7, but in Delphi 2010, it's about 35 megs.
>
> What is the smallest Delphi 2010 "Hello World" program?
>
> procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
> begin
>    Edit1.Text := 'Hello World from D5';
> end;
>
> With debug checking turned on
> In D5 it is 297K bytes and
> in D7 it is 373K bytes.
>
> --JohnH

825k as GUI application
  23k as console application

But honestly, does size really matter?

Uwe Raabe

196 Kb - 201.216 Bytes on Delphi 1 (Compiled inside DosBox emulating Windows 
3.11)

I'm a bit impressed about the size of my applications on Delphi 2010, but, 
doesn't matter at all... I'm using the new RTTI and loving it... I'm using 
the new things on VCL and loving it MORE...
My auto-update system works with .zip files anyway, I get a really nice 
compression rate (44% of original size)...

Uwe


>But honestly, does size really matter?

Depends on wether the extra bytes are doing something useful or wether it just more bloat.

Roy Lambert

Am 19.06.2010 14:36, schrieb Roy Lambert:
>> But honestly, does size really matter?
>
> Depends on wether the extra bytes are doing something useful or wether it just more bloat.

So that strongly depends on your personal situation: When you use 
Unicode then the extra bytes for the strings are useful, otherwise it is 
bloat. The same is true for RTTI, either you use it or you don't. Let 
alone the many enhancements in the RTL and VCL. I personally won't go 
without them. If exe size is the only drawback, so be it.

Uwe Raabe

Uwe

>So that strongly depends on your personal situation: When you use
>Unicode then the extra bytes for the strings are useful, otherwise it is
>bloat. The same is true for RTTI, either you use it or you don't. Let
>alone the many enhancements in the RTL and VCL. I personally won't go
>without them. If exe size is the only drawback, so be it.

As with Tom I find the extent of the growth hard to comprehend. 18Mb to 35Mb is a LOT of strings and I doubt that the RTL & VCL has had that level of enhancements.

Roy Lambert

> it depends. Personally, about every single other task I have is more
> important than to reduce the executable size of my applications.

IMO it very much depends on the type of application. It can be an issue if a lot 
of people are downloading your software. If you can save 10 MB per download, you 
save 1000 GB for 100,000 downloads.


-- 
Jens Gruschel
http://www.pegtop.net

Hello,

Jens Gruschel wrote:

> IMO it very much depends on the type of application.

sure.

-- 
Moritz

"Hey, it compiles! Ship it!"

> Uwe says:
>>But honestly, does size really matter?


"Roy Lambert" wrote
> Depends on whether the extra bytes are doing something useful or whether it 
> just more bloat.

When programs are filled with bloat, it slows them down by reducing the locality 
of reference and thus the (effectiveness of the cache) ; it increases the time 
required to download and install; it increases the time required for auditing 
for malware, and thus the likelihood of a program containing malware; it 
increases the time required to research for ways to improve the code; and 
re.   --JohnH

> {quote:title=Pieter Zijlstra wrote:}{quote}
> 
> Just wondering: 
> 
> 1) how many source lines are reported after doing a build (see Project
> -> Information for <appname>)?
> 
> 2) how many dfm-files do you have in this project and what is the total
> size of these dfm-files.
> 
> -- 
> Pieter
> 
Good questions, Peter!  I enjoyed writing a small utility to determine the dfm info below:

900k lines of code is compiled during a build.  There are 400 dfm files that get compiled. The dcu's that are created (+from the dfms only+) are 7 megs in size. 

7,000,000/400 = 17 k/dfm average dfm filesize

Ignoring the 10 largest dfms:  10 k/dfm average size

Ignoring the 100 larges dfms: 4 k/dfm average size

The good news: as a result of mining the above data, I found several dfm's that were 1+ meg in size due to some large icons and images that weren't needed.  After eliminating those,  my final .exe size dropped several megabytes to about 30 megs. Nice improvement, but still more than twice the size of the Delphi 7 exe..

The dfm's don't have a lot of large images that we might move out into a resource file we load at run-time. (And that wouldn't solve the overall size problem anyway: I think this is a code generation issue, not Unicode strings or dfm size.

I keep thinking there must be some compiler or linker switch I've missed -- but haven't been able to find any.  

To those who wonder why I care about file size when there are so many other "more important" things to work on:    I agree: in this day and age, file size matters less -- and in many situations, probably not at all. However our product contains quite a few .EXEs that can't be split into sharable libraries and .exes. We supply our product on CD (not DVD).  If the deliverable EXEs grow by two-fold, we wont' be able to fit them onto a single CD and will need to manufacture and ship a second CD.  That's not a
 path we want to go down...

Thanks to all who have posted to this thread.

Edited by: Tom Field on Jun 21, 2010 9:33 AM