Huge binaries?

[Gerald Gutierrez]

Okay I know this must've been asked many times before, but again I
cannot find any references in the FAQ and I couldn't bring anything up
on the archive search.

When using gcc 2.95.2 and libstdc++, why is it that sometimes binaries
can get so HUGE? People must've seen this before. A small program can
compile to 600K in size, and even after stripping, it's still well
over 100K.

Templates, perhaps?

How do I avoid this incredible computer generated binary code bloat
and still use the C++ library?