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Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

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Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#111
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "gaining half a bit of information" about something can correspond to stuff that lets you update your probability distribution about it? I'm not sure.

yes, but your gain is still an integer number. the non-integer ratio is just a statistic (gain per number of units).

only when you consider bits to be the final, indivisible, fundamental unit of information.

which they aren't.

if you have a data storage thingy that can store any of three values, a ternary digit, it is exactly equivalent to log2(3) = ln(3) / ln(2) ~= 1.585 bits.

kind of like US pop-science articles like to say stuff like "a volume 1.5 olympic-size swimming pools" (because a megagallon is just weird), even though obviously, can never have half of such a pool or it would empty.

(ok after some consideration, you could have the bottom half)

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#112
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After using many Unix tools that have this convention, I'm ok with 10 M referring to 10 1024 1024 bytes (10 MiB), contrasted with 10 MB meaning 10,000,000 bytes.

MacOS (we are talking about Xcode) is using the SI definition though. 10 Mega should be 10 Million.

Same with HD capacity info.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#114
post #5

This appears to be bitcode. It probably means they just starting making use of more metadata or something that is now included in the bitcode. Bitcode also now deliberately trades off size vs speed and includes indexes used for LTO, etc. They could be including those. You should almost always expect bitcode to get beat by "llvm-dis|xz", because the goal of bitcode is not to be the most compact possible format, but in…

The iOS Gmail app has increased in size to 140MB at the last update. I'm on a 16GB iPhone and I've noticed app sizes slowly increasing over the last two and a half years that I've had my phone. I have to keep an eye on app size to make sure I don't run out of space on my phone. I've already boycotted the Facebook app, but apps like Gmail are too important to uninstall. If it comes to it I'll be getting rid of a lot o…

I made the mistake of getting a 16GB iPhone 4s last time. I'll never make that mistake again (well, it's impossible now I guess). I was forever having to delete stuff to make room for updates (and IOS gets all sideways when you run out of space halfway through an app update) and managing the memory. It's just not worth the constant headache.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#115
post #41
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60 millibits is pretty small. (Pardon the joke, but while the "m" obviously means "M" from context, I really wish people -- especially computer engineers -- wouldn't say bits when they mean something eight times as large.)

I think you have a good point. The whole reason for standards (like SI units) is so that people don't need to guess or interpret. I don't get why this was downvoted.

Insightful comment which took me 2700 mS to write.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Features mostly. I mean, you seem to absolutely need the Gmail app. While I, too, have a Gmail account, I like the simplicity of the native mail app in iOS. I don't need any additional features. I get mail, I read mail, I can write mail.

you can't fill 140MB with "features mostly". it's gotta be something like mostly media (uncompressed bitmaps), metadata, (debug symbols maybe?), libraries / platform / compatibility layers (95% of which is never used for any particular install). I have seen what it looks like when you actually try to cram "features mostly" into a few tens of megabytes and the GMail app is not that. source: the demoscene

I just downloaded the IPA. It literally looks like it has a 134 MB blob of code (out of a 215 MB universal .app).

Google must have some insane cross-platform code library or something in there.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#117

So, the app explodes in size, and since almost no app provides a "clear cache/temp" feature, apps grow til you are crashing routinely. While iOS may clear some space when it feels like it, I have a monthly routine of deleting and reinstalling a slew of apps which take up gigs of space on the device after usage, even though they are just showing data stored on a server. I know, I shouldn't have to worry about this, th…

iOS cleans up Caches/tmp directory, it it needs space.

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Fi...

> "Note that the system may delete the Caches/ directory to free up disk space, so your app must be able to re-create or download these files as needed."

> tmp: "however, the system may purge this directory when your app is not running."

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#118
post #5

This appears to be bitcode. It probably means they just starting making use of more metadata or something that is now included in the bitcode. Bitcode also now deliberately trades off size vs speed and includes indexes used for LTO, etc. They could be including those. You should almost always expect bitcode to get beat by "llvm-dis|xz", because the goal of bitcode is not to be the most compact possible format, but in…

The iOS Gmail app has increased in size to 140MB at the last update. I'm on a 16GB iPhone and I've noticed app sizes slowly increasing over the last two and a half years that I've had my phone. I have to keep an eye on app size to make sure I don't run out of space on my phone. I've already boycotted the Facebook app, but apps like Gmail are too important to uninstall. If it comes to it I'll be getting rid of a lot o…

For comparison - GMail app on my Pixel XL takes 31MB for the app and about 10MB for data and cache.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Features mostly. I mean, you seem to absolutely need the Gmail app. While I, too, have a Gmail account, I like the simplicity of the native mail app in iOS. I don't need any additional features. I get mail, I read mail, I can write mail.

> I get mail, I read mail, I can write mail. That's exactly what the Gmail app does too. What other features does it offer that the Mail app doesn't? If none, then why does it need to be so huge? I picked on Gmail because it's the most recent culprit that I have noticed creeping (sometimes jumping) up in app size but it isn't the only one guilty of this. Like I said in my original comment, the Reddit app is 13MB and…

They're probably using several bloated SDK's within their app for core Google services, view elements etc etc. If they're using dynamic linking, they have to include these in the binary even if they only use a small percentage of the libraries.

That's potentially one explanation.

Re: Xcode 8.3 produces binaries 3x larger than Xcode 8.2.1

#120

So, the app explodes in size, and since almost no app provides a "clear cache/temp" feature, apps grow til you are crashing routinely. While iOS may clear some space when it feels like it, I have a monthly routine of deleting and reinstalling a slew of apps which take up gigs of space on the device after usage, even though they are just showing data stored on a server. I know, I shouldn't have to worry about this, th…

I made the mistake of buying a 16 GB iPad mini 2. While pretty much all I use on it are a screenful of streaming apps, it's chronically low on memory. I have iCloud Photos enabled and it set to optimize storage, but it regularly gets in a situation where there's not enough free storage to upload new photos to iCloud Photos, since iCloud Photos has filled up the 4 GB free storage...
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