Comment by rimliu
6 years ago
How is that irrelevant? If the app you install is 20MB smaller it is still 20MB not taken from your data cap and it is still less data to transfer, thus faster. Before ABI stability every iOS app had to come with bundled Swift runtime/libs. Event if two apps used exactly the same version, you'd still get two copies. With ABI stability apps can use what iOS provides and no longer need own copies.
20 MB is a ridiculous amount compared to anything else going on in your phone, including sending a few high res shots. Many apps and iOS updates are an order of magnitude bigger, and they are not even games.
If size was such a huge concern, Apple would have provided it a long time ago in Swift.
Size is a huge concern. The article is exactly about why it wasn't done a long time ago, because it is a very hard problem.