ELA small systems language built for developer experience

Statically typed · garbage-collected · native AOT compilation through LLVM

main.ell

"Small language, big delight"
|> String.downcase()
|> String.replace(",", "")
|> String.split()
|> Enum.frequencies()
|> IO.println()
# %{"small" => 1, "language" => 1, "big" => 1, "delight" => 1}

Elixir-inspired syntax

Readable, low-ceremony surface syntax with `defmodule`, `def`, `|>`, and pattern matching.

Statically typed

A small static type system with explicit conversions, structural unions, and no implicit coercion.

Immutable by default

Value bindings are immutable by default; mutation is explicit with `mut` and `:=`.

Recoverable errors as values

No exceptions in v1. Tagged tuples like `{:ok, value} | {:error, reason}` are matched exhaustively.

Native, AOT, GC-managed

Compiles to a standalone native executable via LLVM, with a precise mark-sweep collector managing memory.

Deterministic resources

GC manages memory, while lexical `defer` gives deterministic cleanup of files, streams, and other OS resources.