About the approximate applet sizes in menuconfig

[Denys Vlasenko]

On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 6:38 PM, Kang-Che Sung <explorer09 at gmail.com> wrote:
> (https://git.busybox.net/busybox/commit/?id=4eed2c6c5092ed95b8ee6d994106c54a9fc6ed3e)
>
> I don't like this. I don't like these size info to be put on the titles
> of config options. A few reasons:
> * It can give a false impression that the size of the final busybox
>   binary is the size of these applets summed up, but it's actually not.
>   (Some code can share among applets)
> * The sizes are CPU architecture dependent.

Sure, on a different arch, sizes would change, but "20k" applet is
still approximately 4 times larger than "5k" one.
that's useful information for the user.

> * How the sizes are measured are even unclear. So, does the size include
>   all optional features of the applet, or is it only the basic
>   functionality?
>
> If I were to mention the size in menuconfig, I would put in the help
> texts of the config options, rather than their titles. And be clear how
> the size is measured, for example:
>
>    CONFIG_BINZIP2
>    (Adds about 8.8kB on i686, for bzip2 decompression code)
>    CONFIG_BZIP2
>    (Adds about 18kB on i686, for bzip2 compression and decompression code)

Can you automate this for 400 applets and ~600 options?

> Or alternatively, don't mention the size at all.

The sizes are helping users see which applets are bigger.
Without sizes, it was pure guesswork: if someone optimizes for size,
he would semi-randomly choose what to "sacrifice".