HDDRIVER binary sizes

[uweseimet]

While HDDRIVER is evolving new features are often added. But new features do not necessarily mean a bigger binary size. HDDRIVER (coded in hihgly optimized 68000 and 68030 assembler) is regularly reviewed in order to find bugs or ways to optimize it. Further development does not just mean to add code, but also to maintain and improve the existing codebase.
The overview below shows how the size of HDDRIVER.SYS has changed over time.

Code: Select all

Version | Size in Bytes
-----------------------
  7.93  | 32242
  8.04  | 27860
  8.18  | 28102
  8.23  | 28150
  8.31  | 28206
  8.49  | 28314
  9.10  | 27242
 10.18  | 24874
 11.14  | 25128
 12.06  | 24884
 12.53  | 24920
 12.62  | 24526
 12.79  | 24420

HDDRIVER 12.7 is the most compact version since at least HDDRIVER 6. (I don't have older binaries anymore to compare with.)
All figures are for the HDDRIVER variant with SCSI Driver target interface support. Without this feature the HDDRIVER.SYS binary is even smaller. Refer to the manual (HDDRUTIL preferences) for details on how to switch between these two variants when installing HDDRIVER. The full-featured variant is the one recommended unless there is a severe memory shortage.
It is possible, of course, that with future releases the size of the HDDRIVER binary will grow again. But if it does, it will be for a good reason.