Skip to content

Scope and Compatibility

Quxlang is a pre-release systems programming language and cross-compiler. The compiler can produce native programs for several operating systems and CPU architectures, and it also has a Cortado-backed JVM path, but the language and toolchain are still under active development.

Compatibility layers

Quxlang separates source compatibility, data interchange, and native ABI compatibility:

  • Source syntax is intended to become stable, but breaking changes remain possible before the first official release.
  • Ordinary STRUCT layout is an implementation choice and may change between compiler versions or targets.
  • IBC_STRUCT and IBC_ENUM provide Inter Binary Communication layouts where a stable external representation is required.
  • EXTERN_TYPE, EXTERN_PROCEDURE, and calling-convention declarations model interfaces to an external platform ABI.

An ordinary Quxlang type should therefore not be treated as a permanent wire or plugin ABI merely because its current native layout happens to match another language.

Source bundles, not installed environments

The compilation input is a complete source bundle plus qxcbuild.yml and the selected compiler version. qxc does not search the host's installed headers, libraries, or package database. Runtime and library code that a program needs belongs in the bundle's modules.

This boundary is central to reproducibility: host state may affect whether the compiler has enough resources to finish, but it does not silently select a different library or target configuration.

Backend guarantees

Native compilation is the zero-overhead guarantee boundary: abstractions are expected to preserve native efficiency. Cortado and other non-native backends aim for language feature parity, but they do not promise native object layout or zero-overhead representation.

Code that depends on native layout, raw addresses, assembly, or a platform ABI must use target selection so a portable alternative can be provided where the operation is unavailable.

Current documentation boundary

This website documents syntax and behavior supported by the current compiler and exercised by the repository's source bundles. Unimplemented syntax is explicitly labeled as such. Design plans elsewhere in the repository are not presented as completed language features.

See Source bundles and targets, Availability and target selection, and Backends and layout.