From ilya@math.ohio-state.edu

Here is what I see (Solaris 7, WWorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C 5.0,
Configure -des, Ultra5 270MHz)​:

-rw------- 1 ilya regfacul 47220 Jul 26 22​:29 perl5.005_50/regexec.o
-rw------- 1 ilya regfacul 53876 Jul 26 22​:33 perl5.005_57/regexec.o

-rw------- 1 ilya regfacul 51060 Jul 26 22​:49 perl5.005_50/regcomp.o
-rw------- 1 ilya regfacul 59896 Jul 26 22​:49 perl5.005_57/regcomp.o

size perl5.005_5[07]/regexec.o
perl5.005_50/regexec.o​: 44248 + 122 + 0 = 44370
perl5.005_57/regexec.o​: 50715 + 88 + 0 = 50803

perl5.005_50/regcomp.o​: 47096 + 1020 + 0 = 48116
perl5.005_57/regcomp.o​: 55765 + 1012 + 0 = 56777

This is similar to my expectations. I do not have 5.005_00 around to
compare 5.005_00 with perl5.005_50 (which differ by UTF8 only).

I'm puzzled how did you get these sizes of yours...

Ilya