Does using large libraries inherently make slower code?

Question

I have a psychological tic which makes me reluctant to use large libraries (like GLib or Boost) in lower-level languages like C and C++. In my mind, I think:

Answer 1

Ask yourself what your target is. Is it a mid end workstation of today - no problem. Is it older hardware or even a limited embedded system, then it might be.

As previous posters have said, just having the code there does not cost you much in performance (it might reduce the locality for the caches and increase loading times).