Vala could replace C ...

[renoX]

Reiner Pope Wrote:
> kris wrote:
> > http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/09/02/vala-high-level-programming-with-less-fat 
> > 
> > 
> > "Vala is still a work in progress, but support for the language is 
> > growing rapidly. Close GObject integration makes Vala an ideal choice 
> > for GNOME development, and the requisite library support is steadily 
> > falling into place. Vala's biggest deficiency right now is the lack of 
> > documentation. In time, Vala could replace C as the principle language 
> > of the GNOME platform."
> 
> Most of the listed features, D has too:
> - Interfaces
> - Properties
> - Signals  (why is this a language feature?)

Maybe to have a better syntax? 

> - Foreach
> - Lambda expressions
> - Type inference for local variables
> - Generics
> - Non-null types

Are you sure that D has the 'non-null types' feature?
What I understand by 'non-null types' is like in Nice:
having a syntax to declare nullable types, and by default types are not nullable i.e
Type foo = null; is an error (if possible a compile-time error).
Type? foo = null; is ok.
This means that when you have a function f(Type t) you don't need to check in f whether t is null or not, it's already done for you.

AFAIK D doesn't have this.

renoX

> - Assisted memory management
> - Exception handling
> - Type modules (Plugins)
> 
> I'm not sure how type modules work, but I do know about non-null types, 
> and they would sure be nice in D.
> 
> 
>    -- Reiner