Visual Basic Concepts
Optimizing for Size
In the past, available memory and system resources were often limiting factors in designing an application. With 32-bit operating systems, such as Windows 95/98 and Windows NT, these factors are rarely a concern for most Visual Basic programmers. However, there are a number of scenarios where minimizing the size of an application is still important.
Size is extremely important for applications that will be downloaded from the Internet or transferred as attachments to e-mail. For those not fortunate enough to have high-speed data connections, transferring a 1-megabyte file could take an hour or more. In addition to the .exe file, many applications will require additional .dll or .ocx files, adding to the size (and time) of the download. In these scenarios, you would want to optimize your application’s size on disk.
Even if users won’t be downloading your application, it’s usually a good idea to make your application as compact as possible. Smaller applications load faster, and because they consume less memory, you can run additional applications at the same time. You can often improve performance by optimizing your application’s size in memory.
To learn more about size optimizations, see the following topics:
Reducing Code Size Tips for creating compact optimized code.
Cutting Back on Graphics Techniques for optimizing graphics.
Segmented Applications Using components to reduce application size.