Re: [Vala] [ANNOUNCE] Vala 0.5.3 - Compiler for the GObject type system

["Barry Kauler" <bkauler gmail com>]

> * Register structs as boxed types.

This must be a good thing, but what does it mean in practical terms?
I mean, I haven't got a clue what a "boxed type" is and how that changes
how we use structs in Vala/Genie.

Is there documentation anywhere?

Will Genie have to be updated also?

Regards,
Barry Kauler

On 12/18/08, Ali Sabil <ali sabil gmail com> wrote:
> Congrats :) Another step forward toward world domination !
>
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch> wrote:
>
> > We are pleased to announce version 0.5.3 of Vala, a compiler for the
> > GObject type system.
> >
> > Vala 0.5.3 is now available for download at:
> >   http://download.gnome.org/sources/vala/0.5/
> >
> > Changes since 0.5.2
> >  * Rewrite D-Bus server support to directly use libdbus.
> >  * Register structs as boxed types.
> >  * Improve error reporting on invalid code.
> >  * Support private class fields and class destructors.
> >  * Add partial raptor and rasqal bindings.
> >  * Drop vala-gen-project, moved to vtg.
> >  * Many bug fixes.
> >
> > Vala is a new programming language that aims to bring modern programming
> > language features to GNOME developers without imposing any additional
> > runtime requirements and without using a different ABI compared to
> > applications and libraries written in C.
> >
> > valac, the Vala compiler, is a self-hosting compiler that translates
> > Vala source code into C source and header files. It uses the GObject
> > type system to create classes and interfaces declared in the Vala source
> > code.
> >
> > The syntax of Vala is similar to C#, modified to better fit the GObject
> > type system. Vala supports modern language features as the following:
> >
> >        * Interfaces
> >        * Properties
> >        * Signals
> >        * Foreach
> >        * Lambda expressions
> >        * Type inference for local variables
> >        * Generics
> >        * Non-null types
> >        * Assisted memory management
> >        * Exception handling
> >
> > Vala is designed to allow access to existing C libraries, especially
> > GObject-based libraries, without the need for runtime bindings. All that
> > is needed to use a library with Vala is an API file, containing the class
> > and method declarations in Vala syntax. Vala currently comes with
> > bindings for GLib and GTK+. It's planned to provide generated bindings for
> > the full GNOME Platform at a later stage.
> >
> > Using classes and methods written in Vala from an application written in
> > C is not difficult. The Vala library only has to install the generated
> > header files and C applications may then access the GObject-based API of
> > the Vala library as usual. It should also be easily possible to write a
> > bindings generator for access to Vala libraries from applications
> > written in e.g. C# as the Vala parser is written as a library, so that
> > all compile-time information is available when generating a binding.
> >
> > More information about Vala is available at
> >
> >        http://live.gnome.org/Vala
> >
> >
> > The Vala Team
> >
> >        Jürg Billeter and Raffaele Sandrini
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Vala-list mailing list
> > Vala-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/vala-list