On Bjarne Stroustrup's site, it's says in the FAQs:
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Why is the code generated for the "Hello world" program ten times larger for
C++ than for C?
It isn't on my machine, and it shouldn't be on yours. I have even seen the C++
version of the "hello world" program smaller than the C version. When I
recently (2004) tested using gcc -o2 on a Unix, the two versions (iostreams and
stdio) yielded identical sizes. There is no language reason why the one version
should be larger than the other. It is all an issue on how the implementor
organized the libraries. If one version is significantly larger than the other,
report the problem to the implementor of the larger.
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Perhaps unnecessary files are being included in <iostream>. These files should
NOT be over 400 KB. In fact, a standard Win32 header compiles to a smaller
file.
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Summary: iostream includes excessive headers - results in large
files
Product: gcc
Version: unknown
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: P3
Component: c++
AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org
ReportedBy: rosenwad at bxscience dot edu
http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30945
