CupidC Language Reference

CupidC is a C-like language for cupid-os that compiles to x86 machine code via JIT compilation.

String Escape Sequences

CupidC supports the following escape sequences in string and character literals:

Escape	Meaning	ASCII Value
\n	Newline (LF)	10
\t	Tab	9
\r	Carriage return (CR)	13
\b	Backspace	8
\\	Backslash	92
\'	Single quote	39
\"	Double quote	34
\0	Null terminator	0
\xNN	Hexadecimal byte (00-FF)	Variable

Hexadecimal Escapes

The \xNN escape sequence allows specifying a byte value in hexadecimal:

char esc = '\x1B';          // ESC character (27)
char *red = "\x1B[31m";     // ANSI red color code
print("\x48\x69");          // Prints "Hi" (0x48='H', 0x69='i')

Both uppercase and lowercase hex digits are supported: \x1B, \x1b, \xFF, \xff

Control Flow

Break Statement

The break statement exits the innermost loop or switch statement:

while (1) {
    if (condition1) break;  // Exit loop
    if (condition2) break;  // Multiple breaks supported
}

Implementation: CupidC supports multiple break statements per loop. The compiler maintains an array of break patch locations (up to 32 breaks per loop) and patches them all when the loop ends.

Available Functions

Built-in Functions

I/O Functions

• print(char *s) - Print a string
• putchar(char c) - Print a single character
• print_int(int n) - Print an integer
• print_hex(int n) - Print integer in hexadecimal
• getchar() - Read a character from keyboard

Memory Functions

• kmalloc(int size) - Allocate memory
• kfree(void *ptr) - Free memory
• memset(void *ptr, int val, int size) - Set memory bytes
• memcpy(void *dst, void *src, int size) - Copy memory

String Functions

• strlen(char *s) - Get string length
• strcmp(char *s1, char *s2) - Compare strings
• strncmp(char *s1, char *s2, int n) - Compare first n characters

File System Functions

• vfs_open(char *path, int flags) - Open a file
• vfs_close(int fd) - Close a file
• vfs_read(int fd, char *buf, int size) - Read from file
• vfs_write(int fd, char *buf, int size) - Write to file
• vfs_unlink(char *path) - Delete a file
• vfs_mkdir(char *path) - Create a directory
• resolve_path(char *rel, char *abs) - Resolve relative path to absolute

Program Functions

• get_args() - Get command-line arguments as string
• exit(int code) - Exit program with code

Limitations

• Maximum 32 break statements per loop
• Maximum 64 nested loops
• No switch statement with more than 64 cases
• No floating point support
• No preprocessor macros

Common Patterns

Parsing Command-Line Arguments

Programs receive arguments as a single string via get_args(). To parse multiple space-separated arguments:

// Parse a single token from a string
int parse_token(char *str, int start, char *out, int maxlen) {
    int i = start;

    // Skip leading spaces
    while (str[i] == ' ' || str[i] == '\t') {
        i = i + 1;
    }

    // Check if end of string
    if (str[i] == 0) {
        out[0] = 0;
        return 0;
    }

    // Copy token until space or end
    int j = 0;
    while (str[i] != 0 && str[i] != ' ' && str[i] != '\t' && j < maxlen - 1) {
        out[j] = str[i];
        i = i + 1;
        j = j + 1;
    }
    out[j] = 0;

    return i - start;
}

// Usage example
void main() {
    char *args = (char*)get_args();
    char token[256];
    int pos = 0;

    while (1) {
        int len = parse_token(args, pos, token, 256);
        if (len == 0) break;  // No more tokens

        print("Token: ");
        print(token);
        print("\n");

        pos = pos + len;
    }
}

Error Handling with VFS

int fd = vfs_open(path, 0);
if (fd < 0) {
    print("Error opening file: ");
    print(path);
    print("\n");
    return;
}

// Use file...
vfs_close(fd);

Examples

Hello World

void main() {
    print("Hello, World!\n");
}

Using ANSI Colors

void main() {
    char *red = "\x1B[31m";
    char *reset = "\x1B[0m";

    print(red);
    print("This is red text");
    print(reset);
    print("\n");
}

Loop with Multiple Breaks

void main() {
    int i = 0;
    while (i < 100) {
        if (i == 10) break;      // Exit at 10
        if (i % 7 == 0) break;   // Or exit at first multiple of 7
        i = i + 1;
    }
    print_int(i);
}