Re: [Vala] Removal of Mono

[Charles Hixson <charleshixsn earthlink net>]

On Fri, 2009-06-26 at 16:41 +0100, Sam Liddicott wrote:
> I've trimmed my response after reading Aaron Andersen's post, who
> expressed very neatly the issues at stake.
>
> I'm clarifying on-topic as I seem to have given Michael the wrong
> impression on a topic that is more politically charged than i realised.
>
> * Michael B. Trausch wrote, On 26/06/09 16:03:
> > Last message on-list on this topic, because *this topic does not
> > belong here*.
> I was talking about influencing the development of the vala language
> which does belong here.
>
> >
> > On Fri, 26 Jun 2009, Sam Liddicott wrote:
> >
> >> * Michael B. Trausch wrote, On 26/06/09 13:54:
> >>
> >
> > While Mono may be in the back of many people's minds (whether
> > correctly or not) is irrelevant. This list's only topic is Vala. Mono
> > does not relate directly to Vala, and C# only does in that Vala is
> > "C#-like" and potentially in the discussions of adopting certain
> > semantics or grammar from C#.
>
> That's what I'm taking about!
>
> There may be aspects of C# (particularly relating to interfaces) or
> other aspects which vala could unofficially make room for to aid a
> migration of C# programs if the political move from mono increases.
> THAT'S what I'm talking about.
>
> >> There is enough long-term noise about the removal of mono, and any
> >> action on this could result in an increased usage of vala. Where's the
> >> harm in being prepared for this?
> >
> > That makes no sense, unless you assume that Vala is only "prepared"
> > for a userbase of nil.
>
> The issue being raised is not whether or not Vala is prepared for any
> size of user base, but that we might become aware of what degree it is
> worth making vala "prepared" for a load of C# users with existing code,
> and what that preparation might be, and what preparation would be
> acceptable within the direction that the vala language is developing.
> The answer may be "none" but I don't want to presume that.
...
> Sam
It isn't.  Documentation is lacking for anyone who is not already familiar with GObject...and possibly for many that are.  (Not being familiar with it, I can't really say.)

Vala looks like a very nice language, but it's too undocumented to be able to really give a decent test to.  This is a pity, because I really wanted to test it on a project I was working starting.  Instead I'm using D (Digital Mars D, not any of the others), which is working quite well.  But Vala would have been preferable because of easier linkage with C libraries.