From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 21685 invoked from network); 2 Jun 2000 14:11:52 -0000 Received: from sunsite.auc.dk (130.225.51.30) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 2 Jun 2000 14:11:52 -0000 Received: (qmail 12022 invoked by alias); 2 Jun 2000 14:11:21 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-workers-help@sunsite.auc.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 11726 Received: (qmail 11984 invoked from network); 2 Jun 2000 14:11:18 -0000 X-Envelope-Sender-Is: Andrej.Borsenkow@mow.siemens.ru (at relayer david.siemens.de) From: "Andrej Borsenkow" To: "Peter Stephenson" , "Zsh hackers list" Subject: Use and abuse of dynamic loading RE: Getting dynamic loading to work on cygwin Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 18:11:14 +0400 Message-ID: <000001bfcc9c$697939a0$21c9ca95@mow.siemens.ru> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6700 In-reply-to: <0FVI00DP2XD5AS@la-la.cambridgesiliconradio.com> Importance: Normal This is not directly related to Cygwin; I just use the occasion. What are plans for dynamic loading future in Zsh? This feature as it currently is may be interesting, but ... - it does not save disk space. Modules take up at least the same amount of disk space (and even more due to symbol tables). - it does not save memory at runtime. Most modern systems share code in any case; actually, dynamic loading requires slightly more memory for houskeeping (and then, this memory really per process) - it is usually slower because of indirection. So, the sole advantage IMHO is the ability to extend main program on-the-fly. Consider Perl or Tcl where you compile and install modules independently of main program. But this is exactly what Zsh lacks (just think about autoloading - all information is compiled into main executable, so if I want another module be autoloaded I need to recompile zsh). Sorry, if it obvious, but I thought I ask anyway. -andrej