Re: build customizability

[Albert Krewinkel <albert+pandoc-9EawChwDxG8hFhg+JK9F0w@public.gmane.org>]

brainchild writes:

> This observation leads me to wonder whether it is possible, at least in
> principle, to achieve a substantially smaller executable size that offers a
> specific selection of the full application's capabilities.

I had a look into this some time ago. My conclusion was: while it is
possible to arrive at a smaller executable by manually disabling all
unwanted code, it is not worth the effort.

The question usually arises with the idea of using pandoc for Markdown
parsing, outputting various other formats. Many large parsers, like
those for LaTeX and HTML, are dependencies of the Markdown reader, so
they cannot be removed. The most commonly used writers are also some of
the most complex, so there is not that much to gain there either.

I seem to remember that, even after removing a significant amount of
functionality, I still achieved only a meager 20% reduction in binary
size. More aggressive pruning should be able to squeeze out some more
percentage points, but the binary will never really be "small".

--
Albert Krewinkel
GPG: 8eed e3e2 e8c5 6f18 81fe  e836 388d c0b2 1f63 1124