"5-line" engine

[SMcNeill]

@bplus The CRLF is 1 or 2 bytes depending on OS.  Colon separated is usually colon + space, which is 2 bytes.  At best, you break even.  At worst, you add a byte each time.

Your difference is probably leading whitespace.  QB64 saves your file with those leading spaces so it looks all nice and indented if you open in another text editor.

LTRIM$ those lines before saving and see how it compares for you.