Re: [Vala] Windows Low level with Vala

[Frederik <scumm_fredo gmx net>]

fsw fb comcast net wrote:
> Hello,
> as a vala newbie I want to thank to all devs involved in vala.
>
> I know vala is intended for the gnome platform, but it looks like vala
> could be more than that.
>
> So I would like to use vala as a general-purpose programming language on
> WindowsXP (instead of C#).
> This would include to be able to utilize the Win32-API.
>
> As far as I can see there needs to be a binding for Win32 otherwise it
> will not work (*.vapi, *.pc files?).
>
> Is there already something for the Win32-API in place or do I need to
> start it myself?
>
> What steps are needed?
>
> Is there somebody that could show me how to make this work, maybe even
> start to create the needed files?
> (once I see all what is needed I could take these files and fill them
> with all the Win32-API info)
>
> Is there already an automated way to generate *.vapi files off *.h files?
>
> Thanks
> fsw

As far as I know there are no Win32 API bindings yet. You will have to
manually create a vapi file. The semi-automated way only works for
GObject based libraries. The Win32 API is really huge - this can be a
lot of work. You should start with the functions you need and
successively add more and more. But I'm not sure how well the raw Win32
functions will map to an object oriented structure. The bindings might
feel very C-ish. But with these raw bindings you could create an object
oriented wrapper library in Vala like Microsoft has done with MFC for C++.

For examples of non-GObject based bindings have a look at vapi files
like sdl.vapi, curses.vapi, mysql.vapi or gsl.vapi.

Regards,

Frederik