[josm-dev] .jar file size is too big

[Dirk Stöcker]

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009, Frederik Ramm wrote:

>    I am a bit concerned about the fact that the JOSM .jar file has
> grown from 1.7 MB to 5.5 MB in the last 12 months, that's factor 3.2.
> With all due respect, I do not think that JOSM is now 3.2 times as good
> as it was one year ago - it certainly is better but on average we seem

Actually this a point where I would argue.

> to be suffering from bloat - the size of the program grows faster than
> its use.

The main size increase are language files and actually there is no other 
useful way to handle these. You know the situation with plugins was not 
optimal.

> This is going to come back to haunt us if we want to do JOSM as a Java
> web start application, or even as an applet, one of which is likely
> going to happen when the API allows users to configure which editor they
> would like to see behind the "edit" tab.

JOSM as webstart works fine for me. I don't think OSM is usable in 
environments with lower bandwidth than DSL has.

E.G. The data download for my home-town (which is a < 10.000 people and 
has streets only atm) already has a size of 1.1MB. So the software-size to 
data-size for JOSM is really a good value.

> So everyone please think twice before you add that cool extra library
> into JOSM. Do we need
>
> images/styles/standard/rendering/cliff.png
>
> with 26 kBytes? Or
>
> images/styles/standard/rendering/track/mini_round.png
>
> with the same size?
>
> Who has added the com/drew/imaging and com/drew/metadata stuff - does
> the JOSM *core* really have to have special knowledge about
> "CasioType1MakerNote"s?

We could probably thin out the unneeded support stuff. The com/drew stuff 
is used to get the date from JPEG's. If the files don't interlink heavy 
than probably half of this stuff can be removed. Also many icons probably 
can be removed.

> Can we perhaps think of a way to dynamically load the language support
> instead of burdening *every* downloader with megabytes of translations
> in languages he will never select? This is very unlikely to scale well.

Well, as said the advantage of having localized JOSM and the disadvantage 
of larger file size goes hand-in-hand. Only 24% of JOSM users use english 
software version - The majority uses localized JOSM (50% use german).

But as said I also don't see that as a big issue. Nevertheless I will do 
some work regarding the i18n stuff and remove the multiplication of 
english strings which will probably reduce the size by 1 to 2 MB.

Ciao
-- 
http://www.dstoecker.eu/ (PGP key available)