CSCS (Customized Scripting in C#) is a scripting language framework, which is very easy to integrate into any C# project and adjust according to your needs. Basically, the concept of CSCS is not only a language, but also a framework that you can use to create your own language. Since the compiler will be inside of your project, you can do whatever you want with the language: add new features, modify existing ones, etc. How to do that and the CSCS Framework itself, have been described in:

• Customized Scripting in C#, MSDN
• Programming your own language in C#, CODE Magazine
• Implementing a Custom Language Succinctly, Syncfusion E-book

The source code for Mobile App development is here. The usage of CSCS in Mobile App development has been described in:

• Developing Cross-Platform Native Apps with a Functional Language, CODE Magazine
• Writing Native Mobile Apps Using a Customizable Scripting Language, MSDN
• Writing Native Mobile Apps in a Functional Language Succinctly, Syncfusion E-book

The usage of CSCS in Unity has been described in:

• Using Custom Scripting and Modding in Unity Game and App Development, CODE Magazine

You can also pre-compile CSCS code to speed-up exection. This has been described in:

• Compiling Scripts to Get Compiled Language Performance, CODE Magazine

You can use Visual Studio Code as an IDE for developing and debugging CSCS code. The Visual Studio Code Extension to debug CSCS code is available here.

Contributions

Special thanks for contributions from Dan Spear, especially using Reflection in order to call C# functionality directly from CSCS. Examples coming up soon.

Description of CSCS

• The syntax is a mixture between C#, JavaScript, and Python.
• All statements must end with a semicolon ";".
• Identation and new lines are not used in parsing (unlike Python).
• All CSCS variables have at least 3 properties that can be accessed using the dot notation: properties, type, size, and string.
• Variables and arrays are all defined implicitly, e.g. x=5, b[7]=11
  An example of a list initialization: c = {"aa", "bb", "xxx"};
  You can also define it explicitly: c[0]="aa"; c[1]="bb";
  Definition in index form doesn't have to start from index 0, or even from the first dimension: not defined elements will have a type NONE. E.g.: b[5][3][5][3]=15;
  Similarly, when defining dictionaries, e.g.: x["bla"]["blu"]="wichtig";
• Control flow statements if, else, while, for, try, etc., all require statements between the curly braces (even for a single statement).
• "elif" means "else if" (like in Python)

What follows is the description of the CSCS functions. The usage of CSCS has been tested on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Unity. Not all of the functions are supported on all of platforms. First, we see the core fuctions, that are supported everywhere, and then the extended functions, dealing more with OS internals and therefore not supported on all the platforms.

CSCS Control Flow Functions

Control Flow Example

include("functions.cscs");
i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < 13; i++) {
  b += (i*4 - 1);
  if ( i == 3) {
    break;
  } else {
    continue;
  }
  print("this is never reached");
}

a = 23; b = 22;
cond = "na";
if (a < b) {
  if (b < 15) {
    cond = "cond1";
  }
  elif  (b < 50) {
    cond = "cond2";
  }
}
elif (a >= 25) {
  cond = "cond3";
}
else {
  cond = "cond4";
}

function myp(par1, par2, par3 = 100) {
  return par1 + par2 + par3;
}

Functions and Try/Catch Example

function myp(par1, par2, par3 = 100) {
  return par1 + par2 + par3;
}

z = myp(par2=20, par1=70); // z = 190

try {
  z = myp(par2=20);
  print("Error. Missing Exception: Function [myp] arguments mismatch: 3 declared, 1 supplied.");
} catch(exc) {
  print("OK. Caught: " + exc);
}
try {
  z = myp(par2=20, par3=70);
  print("Error. Missing Exception: No argument [par1] given for function [myp].");
} catch(exc) {
  print("OK. Caught: " + exc);
}

CSCS Object-Oriented Functions and Named Properties

Object-Oriented Example with Multiple Inheritance

class Stuff1 {
  x = 2;
  Stuff1(a) {
    x = a;
  } 
  function addStuff1(n) {
    return n + x;
  }
}

class Stuff2 {
  y = 3;
  Stuff2(b) {
    y = b;
  } 
  function addStuff2(n) {
    return n + y;
  }
}

class CoolStuff : Stuff1, Stuff2 {
  z = 3;
  CoolStuff(a, b, c) {
    x = a;
    y = b;
    z = c;
  } 
  function addCoolStuff() {
    return x + addStuff2(z);
  }
}

addition = 100;
obj1 = new Stuff1(10);
print(obj1.x); // prints 10
print(obj1.addStuff1(addition); // prints 110

obj2 = new Stuff2(20);
print(obj2.y); // prints 20 
print(obj2.addStuff2(addition)); // prints 120

newObj = new CoolStuff(11, 13, 17);
print(newObj.addCoolStuff()); // prints 41
print(newObj.addStuff1(addition)); // prints 111
print(newObj.addStuff2(addition)); // prints 113

Object-Oriented Example with a C# Compiled Object

ct = new CompiledTest();
ct.NaMe="Lala";
print(ct.name); // prints "Lala": properties are case-insensitive

ct.Extra = "New property";
props = ct.properties;
print(props.contains("Extra")); // prints 1 (true)

CSCS Math Functions

CSCS Variable and Array Functions

Array Example

a[1]=1; a[2]=2;
c=a[1]+a[2];

a[1][2]=22;
a[5][3]=15;
a[1][2]-=100;
a[5][3]+=100;

print(a[5][2]);

a[1][2]++;
print(a[1][2]);
print(a[5][3]++);
print(++a[5][3]);
print(--a[5][3]);
print(a[5][3]--);

b[5][3][5][3]=15;
print(++b[5][3][5][3]);

x["bla"]["blu"]=113;
x["bla"]["blu"]++;
x["blabla"]["blablu"]=126;
--x["blabla"]["blablu"];

CSCS Conversion Functions

CSCS String Functions

Measuring Execution Time, Throwing Exceptions, and String Manipulation Examples

cycles = 1000; i = 0;
start = PsTime();
while ( i++ < cycles) {
    str = " la la ";
    str = StrTrim(str);
    str = StrReplace(str, "la", "lu");
    if (str != "lu lu") {    
      throw "Wrong result: [" + str + "] instead of [lu lu]";
    }
}
end = PsTime();
print("Total CPU time of", cycles, "loops:", end-start, "ms.");
// Example output: Total CPU time of 1000 loops: 968.75 ms.

CSCS Debugger

CSCS Core Miscellaneous Functions

Singleton Example

function CreateArray(size, initValue = 0) {
    result = {};
    for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
        result[i] = initValue;
    }
    return result;
}

pattern = "CreateArray(5, 'Test')";
uniqueArray = Singleton(pattern);
uniqueArray[2] = "Extra";
arr = Singleton(pattern);
print("array=", arr); // {Test, Test, Extra, Test, Test}

JSON and WebRequest Examples

jsonString = '{ "eins" : 1, "zwei" : 2, "drei": "dreiString", "vier": 4.9, "mehr" : { "uno": "uno in spanish" },
                "arrayValue" : [ "une", "deux" ] }';
a = GetVariableFromJSON(jsonString);
print(a.size);        // prints 6
print(a["vier"]);     // prints 4.9;
mehr = a["mehr"]; 
print(mehr["uno"]);   // prints "uno in spanish"
arrayValue = a["arrayValue"];
print(arrayValue[0]); // prints  "une";
print(arrayValue[1]); // prints  "deux);

// Testing a WebRequest:
place      = "8001,ch";
units      = "&units=metric";
key        = "5a548a234f9a28212d0e4b18a96e7a51";
weatherURL = "https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=" + place + units + "&APPID=" + key;

function OnSuccess( object, errorCode, text )
{
    // text='{"coord":{"lon":8.54,"lat":47.37},"weather":[{"id":802,"main":"Clouds","description":"scattered clouds","icon":"03n"}],"base":"stations","main":{"temp":9.92,"pressure":1015,"humidity":87,"temp_min":7.78,"temp_max":12.22},"visibility":10000,"wind":{"speed":1.5,"deg":320},"clouds":{"all":40},"dt":1559861701,"sys":{"type":1,"id":6941,"message":0.0094,"country":"CH","sunrise":1559878231,"sunset":1559935141},"timezone":7200,"id":180002468,"name":"Zurich","cod":200}'

    jsonFromText = GetVariableFromJSON( text );
    main = jsonFromText["main"];
    city = jsonFromText["name"];
    wind = jsonFromText["wind"];
    sys  = jsonFromText["sys"];
    country = sys["country"];
    print("Temperature in", city, country, main["temp"], "tempMin:", main["temp_min"], "tempMax:", main["temp_max"], 
          "humidity:", main["humidity"], "pressure:", main["pressure"], "wind:", wind["speed"]);
    Test(city, "Zurich");
    Test(country, "CH");
}
function OnFailure( object, errorCode, text )
{
    print( "Failure " + errorCode + ": " + text );
}
WebRequest( "GET", weatherURL, "", "", "OnSuccess", "OnFailure" );

All of the functions above are supported on all devices. But there are also a few functions that have more access to the OS internals and are supported only for Windows or Mac apps. They are below.

CSCS File and Command-Line Functions (not available in Unity, iOS, Android)

CSCS Extended Miscellaneous Functions

Extending CSCS with new Functions

To extend CSCS language with a new function, we need to perform two tasks. First, we define a new class, deriving from the ParserFunction class.

Second, we register the newly created class with the parser in an initialization phase as follows: ParserFunction.RegisterFunction(FunctionName, FunctionImplementation);

Let's see an example how to do that with a random number generator function.

A CSCS Function Implementing a Random Number Generator

class GetRandomFunction : ParserFunction
{
    static Random m_random = new Random();

    protected override Variable Evaluate(ParsingScript script)
    {
        // Extract all passed function args:
        List<Variable> args = script.GetFunctionArgs();

        // Check that we should have at least one argument:
        Utils.CheckArgs(args.Count, 1, m_name);

        // Check that the limit is a positive integer:
        Utils.CheckPosInt(args[0]);

        int limit = args[0].AsInt();
        return new Variable(m_random.Next(0, limit));
    }
}

Registering A CSCS Function with the Parser

ParserFunction.RegisterFunction("Random", new GetRandomFunction());

That's it! Now inside of CSCS we can just execute the following statement:

x = Random(100);

and x will get a random value between 0 and 100.