[common] High-overhead; {baroque}; code-intensive; featureful, but
costly. Esp. used of communication protocols, language designs, and
any sort of implementation in which maximum generality and/or ease of
implementation has been pushed at the expense of mundane
considerations such as speed, memory utilization, and startup time.
{EMACS} is a heavyweight editor; {X} is an extremely heavyweight
window system. This term isn't pejorative, but one hacker's
heavyweight is another's {elephantine} and a third's {monstrosity}.
Oppose lightweight. Usage: now borders on techspeak, especially in
the compound heavyweight process.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {EMACS}{lightweight}{TANSTAAFL}]