While all software development generally tries to avoid excessive size and including unnecessary code through various
best practices and
compiler optimization, lightweight software development implies the employment of specific programming techniques and styles designed to produce extremely small and performant software. A demonstrative example of the extreme end of lightweight software are complex programs developed entirely in
assembly language. •
KolibriOS – A fully-functional, bespoke
operating system written in
FASM assembly language, which is small enough to boot from a
floppy diskette. •
RollerCoaster Tycoon – A
construction and management simulation game written in
x86 assembly language for
MASM. Lightweight software for everyday usage is generally focused on applications that are used frequently, have a singular purpose, and are expected to load and execute almost instantly. •
XFCE – A
desktop environment for
Unix-like operating systems, written in the C programming language, that is regarded as being highly performant, and especially suited to devices with older or minimal hardware capabilities. •
Neovim – A
terminal-based
text editor with an extremely broad feature set and programmability via
Lua. Because Neovim lacks any graphical user interface (
GUI), it can include many features, while remaining lightweight, because the
graphics libraries are the "heaviest" part of most applications. == See also ==