zarqman's Journal: "despite it's small size"

while browsing freshmeat today i was reminded again about the errant view of software size that has developed in recent years. the software announcements always go something like this:

despite it's small size, yetanotherprogram is secure, standards compliant, and offers many features.

my problem certainly isn't with being secure standards compliant, and isn't really with offering features. but i have to ask, why do we have to disclaim a program's small size? it seems to make the assumption that programs of this type should be bloated. have we become to accustomed to bloatware that we find it strange that a program can be well written and full-features and still be small? i'm afraid we have and it's a tragedy. kudos to those developers who write complete, secure, standards-compliant, and small software. don't be ashamed of doing so.