Quilon

A statically-typed, symbol-based language that compiles to native code via LLVM.

Quilon (.ql) has no control-flow keywords — syntax is built from symbols (^, <<, >>, |>, ::, =>, …). It targets native performance through LLVM with a small, unified type system.

Status: 0.9.0 — "stable basics." The core language works and is verified end-to-end (it compiles, runs, and is tested). It is not feature-complete. For exactly what is and isn't implemented, see the feature matrix in LANGUAGE.md.

A taste

<< core.io

~ functions are arrow bindings
double = x => x * 2

~ Text is a built-in type: + concatenates, .length counts graphemes
greet = name :: Text => "Hello, " + name

~ the pipe |> injects the left value as the first argument
^ = () -> Num => <
  print(greet("Quilon"))      ~ stdout: Hello, Quilon
  for n <- [1, 2, 3] => print(n)
  10 |> double                ~ ≡ double(10)
>

See LANGUAGE.md for the full reference (types, modules, pattern matching, I/O, the symbol table, and the feature matrix).

Build & run

cargo build --release            # binary at target/release/quilon
cargo run -- run   program.ql    # JIT-compile and execute (exit code = the program's result)
cargo run -- build program.ql    # build a native executable (links libquilon_rt + libgc)
cargo run -- check program.ql    # typecheck only

Requires LLVM 22 and libgc (Boehm GC) installed. Contributor and architecture notes are in CLAUDE.md.

Vision (aspirational)

The longer-term goals that motivate the design — not all implemented in 0.9:

• Implicit parallelism — sequential-looking code, parallel execution.
• Deep immutability — immutable by default, enabling fearless parallelism.
• No function coloring — non-blocking I/O without async/await.
• Web-first — a systems-level language aimed at high-performance web services.

Today these are direction, not delivered features; the runtime is single-threaded and the parallel/non-blocking machinery is not built yet.

License

GPL-2.0.