Vala could replace C ...

[Charles D Hixson]

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."

I think you've been oversold.  Note that it's at version 0.13. 
  Read how it does memory management. Search the site for 
documentation.  (Documentation is one of the main reasons that 
I've avoided gcj.  I NEED to be able to call C libraries...and 
gcj will let me, but won't describe how.  [Well, *I* haven't 
found where it's described.]  I could use Fortran or Ada, but 
they don't have garbage collection.  Eiffel, another 
possibility, is still recovering from it's most recent 
schism...and it provokes them so often that it's never been 
able to standardize it's libraries.  [E.g., gobo works with 
SmartEiffel 1.0, but not with 1.2, and the compiler writers 
are disdainful of any suggestion that they should consider 
that a problem.  "To us SmartEiffel is a research project.")

Vala is interesting, especially because it looks to have easy 
support for GTK, and easy linkage to C.  (Both ways?  It's not 
clear.  Could you call a Vala routine from a program started 
in C?)

And as usual the problem is with C++ libraries.  Nobody but 
C++ appears able to talk to them directly.  At some point I 
really MUST learn to use swig.

But D is here now, and if the libraries aren't all that one 
could wish, they show promise of growing over time, and not 
being arbitrarily broken.