Laze — LLM-Authored Zero Effort

⚠️ Warning: This was just an experiment in which I asked Claude Opus 4.7 to create a programming language in the most efficient way it could. It isn't meant to be a serious thing — just a fun weekend project exploring what happens when you let an LLM design its own language.

📝 LinkedIn Post

A programming language optimized for LLM authoring that compiles to native macOS binaries. Indentation-based, minimal punctuation, infix operators.

Thoughts

Even though this isn't C code, the compiler does generate C internally as an intermediate step. This is an LLM — it specializes in text-based, readable input because that's what it's trained on. It's not going to emit raw bytecode or hand-tuned assembly efficiently. If you wanted a more efficient language, you shouldn't be using an LLM to write it. The point of Laze is to be the language that an LLM can produce the most correct, bug-free code in, as fast as possible. Minimal punctuation, no ambiguity, and direct access to system libraries.

Also... who in their right mind would make a single nes.laze file that is 2000+ lines of code... guess the AI will! I didn't ask it to split files, so maybe it needs some additional work.

Quick Start

python3 laze/lazec.py hello.laze hello
./hello

Example

extern _write
extern _exit

fn main()
  msg := "Hello, world!\n"
  write(1, msg, 14)
  exit(0)

Language Reference

Functions

fn name(param: type, param2: type) -> rettype
  body

Types: u8, u16, u32, u64, i8, i16, i32, i64, ptr

Variables

x := 42          ; declare + assign
x = x + 1        ; reassign

Control Flow

if condition
  body
end

if condition
  body
else
  body
end

while condition
  body
end

Operators

All standard infix: + - * / % & | ^ << >> == != < > <= >= && ||

Memory (byte arrays)

buf := malloc(1024)
buf[0] = 65          ; store byte
v := buf[0]          ; load byte

Directives

extern _funcname     ; declare external C function
link SDL2            ; link library
linkpath /opt/lib    ; add library search path
framework Cocoa      ; link macOS framework

Comments

Architecture

The compiler (laze/lazec.py) is a Python tool that:

1. Parses .laze source into an AST
2. Generates C internally (never written to disk)
3. Pipes to cc -O2 for optimized native binary output

No .c files are created — code exists only in memory during compilation.

NES Emulator

A complete NES emulator written in Laze:

python3 laze/lazec.py nes.laze nes
./nes "Super Mario Bros. (World).nes"
./nes "Legend of Zelda, The (USA) (Rev 1).nes"

Requires SDL2 (brew install sdl2). Defaults to "Super Mario Bros. (World).nes" if no argument given.

Features

• 6502 CPU (all official opcodes)
• PPU with background, sprites (8x8 and 8x16), scrolling
• APU with 2 square wave channels + triangle
• Controller input
• Mapper 0 (NROM), Mapper 1 (MMC1), Mapper 4 (MMC3)

Controls

• Arrow keys: D-pad
• Z: A button
• X: B button
• Return: Start
• Right Shift: Select

Supported Games

• Super Mario Bros. (Mapper 0) — fully playable
• Legend of Zelda (Mapper 1) — playable with minor glitches
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (Mapper 4) — experimental