GL3 is an LLVM-based compiler for a systems programming language. The compiler is written in Go and uses the llir/llvm library for code generation.

GL3 makes deliberate design choices that differ from many modern languages:

No Type Inference - All types must be explicitly specified. Variables require type annotations, and literals carry type suffixes. This eliminates ambiguity and makes the programmer's intentions explicit in the code.

No Static Arrays - Static arrays complicate the type system and offer little practical benefit when heap memory is readily available. Use dynamic arrays from the arrays standard library module instead. The __asm__salloc function in the asm module exists for extreme low-level scenarios (such as OS development before an allocator exists), but its use is discouraged outside of those specific cases.

The compiler produces LLVM IR which is then compiled to a native executable using clang. Clang is required for a full compilation pipeline.

• Go >=1.25.5
• Clang (tested with version 22.1.1)

make

This compiles the stdlib builtin modules to LLVM IR and builds the gl3 compiler binary. You can also cleanup any build files using make clean

import "io"
import "ralloc"
import "strings"

struct Node {
    char* name
    Node* next
}

fnc main() -> int32 {
    def Node* a = malloc(sizeof Node) as Node*
    def Node* b = malloc(sizeof Node) as Node*

    a.name = dynstr("alice")
    a.next = b
    b.name = dynstr("bob")
    b.next = (0 as Node*)

    def Node* cur = a
    while (cur as int) != 0 {
        println("hello, %s", *cur.name)
        cur = cur.next
    }

    str_free(a.name)
    str_free(b.name)
    free(a)
    free(b)
    return 0i32
}

./gl3 build example.gl3 -o output
./output

• SYNTAX.md - Complete language syntax reference
• STDLIB.md - Standard library documentation
• CLI.md - Command line interface reference