diff --git a/native/io.c b/native/io.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b4791726e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/native/io.c
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+#include "factor.h"
+
+/* Simple wrappers for ANSI C I/O functions, used for bootstrapping.
+The Factor library provides platform-specific code for Unix and Windows
+with many more capabilities.
+
+Note that c-streams are pretty limited and broken. Namely,
+there is a limit of 1024 characters per line, and lines containing
+\0 are not read fully.
+
+The native FFI streams in the library don't have this limitation. */
+
+void init_c_io(void)
+{
+	userenv[IN_ENV] = tag_object(alien(stdin));
+	userenv[OUT_ENV] = tag_object(alien(stdout));
+}
+
+void c_stream_error(void)
+{
+	CELL error = tag_object(from_c_string(strerror(errno)));
+	general_error(ERROR_IO,error);
+}
+
+void primitive_fopen(void)
+{
+	char *path, *mode;
+	FILE* file;
+	maybe_garbage_collection();
+	mode = unbox_c_string();
+	path = unbox_c_string();
+	file = fopen(path,mode);
+	if(file == NULL)
+		c_stream_error();
+	box_alien(file);
+}
+
+#define FACTOR_LINE_LEN 1024
+
+void primitive_fgets(void)
+{
+	FILE* file;
+	char line[FACTOR_LINE_LEN];
+
+	maybe_garbage_collection();
+
+	file = (FILE*)unbox_alien();
+	if(fgets(line,FACTOR_LINE_LEN,file) == NULL) 
+	{
+		if(feof(file))
+			dpush(F);
+		else
+			c_stream_error();
+	}
+	else
+		dpush(tag_object(from_c_string(line)));
+}
+
+void primitive_fwrite(void)
+{
+	FILE* file;
+	F_STRING* text;
+	maybe_garbage_collection();
+	file = (FILE*)unbox_alien();
+	text = untag_string(dpop());
+	if(fwrite(to_c_string_unchecked(text),1,
+		untag_fixnum_fast(text->length),
+		file) == 0)
+		c_stream_error();
+}
+
+void primitive_fflush(void)
+{
+	FILE* file = (FILE*)unbox_alien();
+	fflush(file);
+}
+
+void primitive_fclose(void)
+{
+	FILE* file = (FILE*)unbox_alien();
+	fclose(file);
+}