Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!pa.dec.com!bacchus!mwm From: mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: How are some programs SO DAMN SMALL! Message-ID: Date: 14 Feb 91 18:14:00 GMT References: <1991Jan20.210328.18087@hoss.unl.edu> <28077.279c3c3f@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <91042.125712UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> <91042.134209J56QC@CUNYVM.BITNET> Sender: news@pa.dec.com (News) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 24 In-Reply-To: Ives Aerts's message of Thursday, 14 Feb 1991 15:06:04 +01 In article <91045.150604GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be> Ives Aerts writes: >Example: I just spent 30 seconds turning out a "hello world" program >in a language chosen to 1) be portable, and 2) generate small >executables. The executable is 20 bytes long. How small is your best But this is VERY hard to believe.. 'hello world' is 11 bytes, how on earth are you gonna make an executable that's only 9 bytes longer ?????? Actually, it's 13 bytes after you add punctuation and the trailing newline. I could probably trim one byte from the executable, leaving it at an extra 6 bytes. And you do it by choosing the right language. This results in a 20 byte file that prints the string "Hello world!" and a newline after I invoke it.