[Boost-users] Surprised by size of static libraries

Hi I have built static and shared boost_python libraries under Visual C++ 2008 under Windows and am surprised by the size difference. The commands I use are: C:\boost_1_43_0>bjam toolset=msvc-9.0 --with-python link=shared C:\boost_1_43_0>bjam toolset=msvc-9.0 --with-python link=static The resulting shared libraries are: boost_python-vc90-mt-1_43.dll 216KB boost_python-vc90-mt-gd-1_43.dll 500KB The resulting static libraries are: libboost_python-vc90-mt-1_43.lib 5.59MB libboost_python-vc90-mt-gd-1_43.lib 21.2MB Please can anyone explain why the static libraries are at least 25x larger than the shared libraries? Is there a way to reduce the size of the static libraries? Best regards David