Nim versus Rust binary sizes

gistfile1.txt

fib_nim.nim:

proc fib(n: int32): int32 =
  if n == 0 or n == 1:
    return n
  else:
    return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
    
when isMainModule:
  echo "Fib 15: ", fib(15)
  echo "Fib 11: ", fib(11)
  echo "Fib 19: ", fib(19)

fib_rust.rs:

fn main() {
    println!("Fib 15: {}", fib(15));
    println!("Fib 11: {}", fib(11));
    println!("Fib 19: {}", fib(19));
}

fn fib(n: i32) -> i32 {
    if n == 0 || n == 1 {
        return n
    } else {
        return fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)
    }
}

% nim c fib_nim.nim
% rustc fib_rust.rs
% ls -l
.rwxr-xr-x 112k thomas 14 nov 13:41 fib_nim*
.rw-r--r--  208 thomas 14 nov 13:36 fib_nim.nim
.rwxr-xr-x 4,0M thomas 14 nov 13:41 fib_rust*
.rw-r--r--  253 thomas 30 okt 15:34 fib_rust.rs
% strip fib_nim
% strip fib_rust
% ls -l
.rwxr-xr-x  92k thomas 14 nov 13:42 fib_nim*
.rw-r--r--  208 thomas 14 nov 13:36 fib_nim.nim
.rwxr-xr-x 424k thomas 14 nov 13:42 fib_rust*
.rw-r--r--  253 thomas 30 okt 15:34 fib_rust.rs
% nim c -d:release --opt:size fib_nim.nim
% ls -l fib_nim
.rwxr-xr-x  48k thomas 14 nov 13:43 fib_nim*
% strip fib_nim
% ls l fib_nim
.rwxr-xr-x 35k thomas 14 nov 13:44 fib_nim*

On FreeBSD 12.0 with rustc rustc 1.37.0

% rustc fib.rs 
% ls -l fib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 hsw  hsw  303520 2019-08-29 12:43 fib*
% strip fib
% ls -l fib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 hsw  hsw  224600 2019-08-29 12:43 fib*

% rustc -O -C lto fib.rs
% ls -l fib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 hsw  hsw  241016 2019-08-29 12:53 fib*
% strip fib             
% ls -l fib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 hsw  hsw  194088 2019-08-29 12:53 fib*

An improvement but not near nim yet