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.

• 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

• 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

jlc1 -g Main.jr -o Test.exe

• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• Visual Studio 2022 or 2026
• LLVM / Clang toolchain (clang-cl must be available) Download

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 2022/2026.
3. Build the Test project to perform a build of all projects in the solution in the correct order.

This project is available under the MIT License.