FAQ.md

♡ How is this better than C?

• This question depends heavily on the way in which you define "better". For performance, C is substantially better. For ease of use, Elle is progressing towards being better than C.

♡ Feature list

What kind of...	Answer	Notes
Syntax	C/Rust style	Can look like C or rust depending on the features used.
Paradigm	Procedural	Functions can be values, but primarily the language is procedural
Memory management	GC	GC by default, can become Arena by default, can be swapped to anything
Typing	Static	The language is strongly statically typed
Mutability	Mutable	All variables are mutable, always
Lifetimes	N/A	GC means the lifetime of objects is not explicitly managed by the developer
Compiler backend	QBE	LLVM is too bloated for the language's needs, therefore QBE is used instead
Compilation model	AOT	Compiled to native code (via QBE)
Target platform	Native only	Only supports whatever platforms QBE supports, with WASM support planned
Strings	Null terminated	To be fully C ABI compliant, strings are null terminated and not sized
Extension	.le	History: .elle -> [.elle, .l] -> [.elle, .le] -> .le
License	GPL-3	Since April 11th 2025 3:18 PM GMT+1
Wrapping	Curly only	Prefers if x { y } rather than if (x) y (curly braces are mandatory)
Loops	Standard	while cond {} or for x := 1; x < 10; x += 1 or for x in [1, 2, 3] or for x in 0..10
Enums	Basic	Non-generic enums with an optional literal value, not tagged unions
Namespaces	Basic	Functions and constants can be namespaced, but only 1 level deep
Modules	Basic	Modules do not automatically namespace anything

Feature	Support	Notes
Custom Allocators	Yes	The allocator can be changed at runtime, but must be GC or Arena by default.
Lambdas (Closures)	Partial	Lambdas exist, but don't capture their surrounding scopes.
Pattern matching	No	Support planned in the future.
Operator overloading	Partial	Can overload x[y], &x[y], x[y] = z x == y, *x = y, as well as length, hash, tuple, triple, & iter.
First class functions	Yes	Functions can be passed around, and their interface can be expressed in the type system.
Lazy Iterators	Yes	Due to QBE identifier length limitations, only 8-9 adapters can be chained at once. OK for most usecases.
Generics	Partial	Generic functions and structs exist, generic enums do not currently exist but are planned.
Type inference	Yes	The return type of functions is inferred. You can use let x = 1 or x := 1 to infer variable types.
Concurrency	No	Support planned in the future.
Maybe/Option	Yes	Pointers can be nil, but an additional Option feature exists in the prelude.
Manual memory management	Yes	Use mem::malloc and mem::free to allocate without the GC, or use #set_allocator(HeapAllocator::new()).
Coroutines	No	Support planned in the future.
Rich errors	Yes	Elle has a built-in type Result<T, E> in the prelude with helper methods, similar to Rust.
Macros/metaprogramming	Partial	Constants act as macros in a way, they will be recreated each time they're referenced.
Modules/namespaces	Partial	Functions and constants can be namespaced but only 1 level deep. Modules exist but do not qualify imports.
Tail call optimization	No	Support planned in the future.
C FFI	Yes	All C code is callable directly within Elle and vice versa.
Fast compilation times	Partial	All projects should compile < 1s, but it is being constantly improved.
LSP	Partial	Yes, but only for Zed. A language client extension doesn't exist for editors like nvim or vscode yet.
Standard formatter	No	Support planned in the future.
GC Tuning	No	Support planned in the future.
Standard library	Partial	A standard library exists but is lacking features and documentation.
Introspection	Partial	Only introspection at runtime of function call metadata at the call site, structs cannot be reflected.
Deferring	Yes	Currently slightly broken, but should not affect most use-cases.