[vlad]

Building a cross-platform CLI from a python script in 2009 required unrelated open-source tools to package for each of the three major operating systems. I remember asking Dropbox guys what they were using. Having an official way to do it is much better.

Regardless of technology, I think CLI's tend to maintain their original size, or get smaller over time. If you choose to use a CLI built with Elixir, I imagine it could gain a web-based GUI without a large increase, if each build already includes a runtime environment and system libraries. Or if a CLI is written in another language and advertised as very compact, I imagine its size will also stay consistent, but might not gain the same fancy features. And in any case, popular compilers or packaging tools tend gain optimization improvements over time.

[remram]

What kind of tools were needed for building CLI apps? Or do you mean for packaging those apps for end users, e.g. PyInstaller and equivalent?

[bombolo]

Uh? What unreleased tools did you need in 2009?

Everything worked fine for me then.

[SirGiggles]

Did you misread "unrelated" for "unreleased" in the first sentence?

[bombolo]

Yes