Click here to Skip to main content
15,885,366 members
Articles / Programming Languages / C++

Project Line Counter Add-In v2.10 for VS.NET and VC6

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
4.92/5 (38 votes)
29 Jun 2003 447.9K   5.3K   142  
Get statistics about your source code with a click of a button
//////////////////////////////
// Version 1.30
// Nov 24th, 2000
// Version 1.20
// Jun 9th, 2000
// Version 1.10
// Jan 23rd, 2000
// Version 1.00
// May 20th, 1999
// Todd C. Wilson, Fresh Ground Software
// (todd@nopcode.com)
// This header file will kick in settings for Visual C++ 5 and 6 that will (usually)
// result in smaller exe's.
// The "trick" is to tell the compiler to not pad out the function calls; this is done
// by not using the /O1 or /O2 option - if you do, you implicitly use /Gy, which pads
// out each and every function call. In one single 500k dll, I managed to cut out 120k
// by this alone!
// The other two "tricks" are telling the Linker to merge all data-type segments together
// in the exe file. The relocation, read-only (constants) data, and code section (.text)
// sections can almost always be merged. Each section merged can save 4k in exe space,
// since each section is padded out to 4k chunks. This is very noticeable with smaller
// exes, since you could have only 700 bytes of data, 300 bytes of code, 94 bytes of
// strings - padded out, this could be 12k of runtime, for 1094 bytes of stuff! For larger
// programs, this is less overall, but can save at least 4k.
// Note that if you're using MFC static or some other 3rd party libs, you may get poor
// results with merging the readonly (.rdata) section - the exe may grow larger.
// To use this feature, define _MERGE_DATA_ in your project or before this header is used.
// With Visual C++ 5, the program uses a file alignment of 512 bytes, which results
// in a small exe. Under VC6, the program instead uses 4k, which is the same as the
// section size. The reason (from what I understand) is that 4k is the chunk size of
// the virtual memory manager, and that WinAlign (an end-user tuning tool for Win98)
// will re-align the programs on this boundary. The problem with this is that all of
// Microsoft's system exes and dlls are *NOT* tuned like this, and using 4k causes serious
// exe bloat. Very noticeable for smaller programs.
// The "trick" for this is to use the undocumented FILEALIGN linker parm to change the
// padding from 4k to 1/2k, which results in a much smaller exe - anywhere from 20%-75%
// depending on the size. Note that this is the same as using /OPT:NOWIN98, which *is*
// a previously documented switch, but was left out of the docs for some reason in VC6 and
// all of the current MSDN's - see KB:Q235956 for more information.
// Microsoft does say that using the 4k alignment will "speed up process loading",
// but I've been unable to notice a difference, even on my P180, with a very large (4meg) exe.
// Please note, however, that this will probably not change the size of the COMPRESSED
// file (either in a .zip file or in an install archive), since this 4k is all zeroes and
// gets compressed away.
// Also, the /ALIGN:4096 switch will "magically" do the same thing, even though this is the
// default setting for this switch. Apparently this sets the same values as the above two
// switches do. We do not use this in this header, since it smacks of a bug and not a feature.
// Thanks to Michael Geary <Mike@Geary.com> for some additional tips!

#if _MSC_VER < 1200  // VC5/6 only

#ifdef NDEBUG
// /Og (global optimizations), /Os (favor small code), /Oy (no frame pointers)
#pragma optimize("gsy",on)

#pragma comment(linker,"/RELEASE")

// Note that merging the .rdata section will result in LARGER exe's if you using
// MFC (esp. static link). If this is desirable, define _MERGE_RDATA_ in your project.
#ifdef _MERGE_RDATA_
#pragma comment(linker,"/merge:.rdata=.data")
#endif // _MERGE_RDATA_

#pragma comment(linker,"/merge:.text=.data")
#pragma comment(linker,"/merge:.reloc=.data")

// Merging sections with different attributes causes a linker warning, so
// turn off the warning. From Michael Geary. Undocumented, as usual!
#pragma comment(linker,"/ignore:4078")

// With Visual C++ 5, you already get the 512-byte alignment, so you will only need
// it for VC6, and maybe later.
#if _MSC_VER >= 1000

// Option #1: use /filealign
// Totally undocumented! And if you set it lower than 512 bytes, the program crashes.
// Either leave at 0x200 or 0x1000
//#pragma comment(linker,"/FILEALIGN:0x200")

// Option #2: use /opt:nowin98
// See KB:Q235956 or the READMEVC.htm in your VC directory for info on this one.
// This is our currently preferred option, since it is fully documented and unlikely
// to break in service packs and updates.
#pragma comment(linker,"/opt:nowin98")

// Option #3: use /align:4096
// A side effect of using the default align value is that it turns on the above switch.
// May break in future versions!
//#pragma comment(linker,"/ALIGN:4096")

#endif // _MSC_VER >= 1000

#endif // NDEBUG

#endif // _MSC_VER < 1200

By viewing downloads associated with this article you agree to the Terms of Service and the article's licence.

If a file you wish to view isn't highlighted, and is a text file (not binary), please let us know and we'll add colourisation support for it.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Experion
Canada Canada
You may know Oz from his WndTabs days. Oz has long since left client side development to work on web technologies and to consult in the R&D management field.

Comments and Discussions