The fb compiler is good, but I also would think most C++ compilers would be able to beat it.
There could be two reasons for the code size difference. One is that the C++ version is using SDL for its graphics library which is huge where the fb one is using fbgfx.bi which is tiny. The second is what compiler options were used - fb doesn't really have many options so you get what you're given, but gcc and other C++ compilers have hundreds, including optimising for speed instead of optimising for size, removing debugging symbols, etc.
Was the C++ code compiled by you Rick - did you used Codeblocks?
<edit>Do they run about the same speed? I suspect they do.
Jim
