A systems language with runtime reflection and no GC

Details

External ID

46270296

Source

HN

Company

—

Product

A systems language with runtime reflection and no GC

Website domain

xxml-language.com

Launched

Dec. 15, 2025

Cohort

—

Upvotes

6

Upvotes percentile

0.2652671755725191

Tags

—

Fetched at

Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.

Updated at

Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.

Description

Hi HN,I’ve been working on an experimental programming language called XXML. The project started from a frustration I kept running into across systems languages:Languages with strong ownership tend to avoid runtime reflection.Languages with rich reflection usually rely on GC or give up memory guarantees.Compile-time code generation often requires a separate macro language.I wanted to explore whether those tradeoffs are truly necessary.What XXML is trying to doXXML is a statically-typed, native language that:Uses explicit ownership and borrowing (no garbage collector)Supports runtime reflection while respecting ownership rulesAllows compile-time code generation using normal language constructs, not macrosCompiles to LLVM IR and produces native binariesReflection APIs are constrained so unsafe ownership operations are rejected at compile time. The goal isn’t “dynamic at all costs,” but introspection without losing safety.What it’s useful for (so far)Some concrete use cases I’m exploring:Safe plugin/mod systems for native applicationsAuto-generated serialization (e.g., JSON/RPC) without macrosDebugging and inspection tools that can reason about user typesDeclarative domains (UI/layout/asset graphs) that benefit from structured syntaxWhat it’s notThis is early-stage and definitely not production-ready:The ecosystem is minimalThe language is still evolvingDocumentation and tooling are incompleteI’m mostly interested in feedback from people who’ve worked on:compilerslanguage runtimessystems with heavy serialization or plugin boundariesCodeGitHub repo: https://github.com/ThatSoulyGuy/XXMLCompiler or https://xxml-language.comI’d especially appreciate criticism around:the ownership modelreflection safety boundarieswhere this design is fundamentally flawedThanks for reading — happy to answer questions.

• Source listing
• Website