Jargon

Jargon is a self-hosting compiled programming language that targets LLVM IR and produces native executables on Windows. The compiler (jlc1) is written in Jargon itself, making it a bootstrapping compiler.

Features

• Self-hosting — the compiler is written in Jargon and can compile itself
• LLVM backend — emits LLVM IR (.ll files) and uses clang-cl for final linking
• C-like syntax — familiar syntax with classes, templates, enums, and more
• Automatic Reference Counting — automatic memory management via reference-counted objects
• Debug support — generates debug information compatible with standard debuggers (-g flag)
• Interop with C — direct declaration of external C functions

Project Structure

• JargonLib - Jargon Compiler library implemented in C#
• jlc0 - Jargon Compiler implemented in C#
• Jargon - Jargon Runtime implemented in Jargon
• jlc1 - Jargon Compiler implemented in Jargon, compiled with jlc0
• jlc2 - Jargon Compiler implemented in Jargon, compiled with jlc1, to check for no degradation
• Test - Test project
• ComTest - Exampe of using COM
• WinApp - Example of minimal Windows application

Usage

Options

Flag	Description
-g	Generate debug information
-k	Keep intermediate files
-o <file>	Specify output file name
-O<level>	Optimization level (O0, O1, O2, Os, Ofast, Od, Ot, Ox)
-I<dir>	Add directory to library search path
-l<library>	Link with specified library
-V	Verbose output
-h, --help	Show help

Example

jlc1 -g Main.jr -o Test.exe

Prerequisites

• Windows with Visual Studio 2022
• LLVM / Clang toolchain (clang-cl must be available)

Building

1. Create a JARGON_LIB system variable pointing to your binary folder. i.e JARGON_LIB=C:\Jargon\x64\Debug
2. Open the solution in Visual Studio 2022.
3. Build the Test project to perform a build of all projects in the solution in the correct order.

License

This project is available under the MIT License.