µTorrent Coding Principles

[xen]

Hey i've been using µTorrent for sometime now, and even though I have constant disconnect problems (most likely down to my linksys router, being replaced soon), i'm extremely impressed with the software.

I am a part-time software developer, as a hobby and I code most things with C++ and sometimes .NET. I was hoping a developer of µTorrent could help me understand their development process, because as soon as I link to any other seemingly 'required' win32 libraries, my application size drastically increases.

Whilst my programs are tailored for small audience, I feel they are often bloated even with all unused code removed and effective optimizing compiler options enabled, although this is using VS.NET 2003/2005. I'm told that by using VS6 I could write smaller code.

Can I assume that µTorrent has its own function libraries, or are you still importing functions the same as nearly all other applications?

Any help/guidance is appreciated, cheers.

[splintax]

Read the FAQ.

µTorrent is programmed in C++ using custom libraries.

[silverfire]

The fact that you're using .NOT also contributes to the bloat.

[DonGato]

The .exe is highly compressed as well.

[Firon]

DonGato: it's only like 270kb or so uncompressed... not particularly big.

Anyway, you're using .NET, which is the entire problem. It's almost as bad as Java

[DonGato]

That's what I call big compression.

But, yes, you're right that 270Kb is not much either.

[chaosblade]

.NET is much better then java, but having it not compile directly to bytecode and having the framework\virtual-machine running takes its toll.

[splintax]

Well, since he said he uses C++ AND .NET, I assumed that he would know all that already..

[ev0|]

it's sort of a moot point until someone writes a managed torrent client in C# and we can all see the difference between all 3 apps (C++, C#, and Java). Nothing will beat utorrent, but i bet the C#/.net app will take less memory and behave better than the Java app (Azureus)

Of course, only one is truly cross platform...

[chaosblade]

There's an open source .NET framework for linux, I believe. So C# is somewhat cross-platform ;]

I dont think a BT client in C# is the problem. The real issue comes in realtime performance, like games. I dont think we will see games written in java\c# because its way too slow ;]

[Ultima]

Yah I think that'd be Mono. Most .NET applications that I've run have been horrendous... the only decent one I've seen was Paint.NET, and even that was... a tad bit unresponsive at times.

[xen]

Yeah I know that .NET is hella bloated, I only use that to churn a program out on demand before I forget my idea, and then I usually recode in vanilla C++.

Yeah I checked out the FAQ after my post.. sorry, but using 'custom' libraries doesn't really help the matter. I use 'custom' libraries too for various functions etc, but i'm unsure of how you could do this to standard w32 api?

Anyway thanks for the responses guys!

[Ultima]

I believe ludde used the Win32API purely, not some widget toolkit and whatnot. When they say custom libraries, it means almost everything was coded on his own, not just "various functions" here and there.

[chaosblade]

I think win32 GUI apps are not worth the huge amount of time you need to get a working GUI properly (also the amount of code). hence why i like C#. But i do agree that bytecode in general would be faster then an optimize C# application when coded well enough.

Custom libraries means ludde probably WROTE the functions he needs on his own. Most of those use standard win32 API functions, yes.

[dcorban]

There are several Bittorrent clients written in C#. From the cursory glance I gave their respective websites, they are far from feature complete, but could be interesting to tinker with.