Re: [Vala] Vala inverse compilation?

["Andrés G. Aragoneses" <knocte gmail com>]

Abderrahim Kitouni escribió:
> Hi,
>
> 2009/11/19 "Andrés G. Aragoneses" <knocte gmail com>:
> > For the purposes of having a tool that, instead of converting vala code
> > to C, would do the other way around (GObject-C to Vala), would the
> > current architecture of the vala compiler help on developing this task?
> I don't think so.
> > I'm wondering if the process of generation of C fragments could be
> > easily refactored to be able to do a C-language scanner from that.
> I don't think it's possible. You can use C and Vala ast types from
> libvala (and use libvala to output vala code). But you'll need to
> write a C parser, and have some rules for converting statements. This
> way would work for converting hand-written code, but converting e.g.
> Vala generated code, would give "unuseable" Vala code, unless you look
> for all the tricks used in the vala code generator (which is a big
> chunk of code) such as do{...}while(0)
> > Not looked at vala sources yet at all, sorry. Any pointers or gross
> > estimation of work is appreciated. Thanks!
> I think you can use gobject-introspection to get the GObject part
> (that is, gobject conventions to vala) as is used to generate
> bindings, for the C part, you'll have to write something that
> translates C statements to vala ones. I think you can do a relatively
> good job for "simple" types (that is, excluding arrays, delegates,
> which have length/target), but the generated code would need to be
> reviewed.
>
> I'm not sure it would be way better than converting the C code
> directly by hand (that is, if you want readable Vala code).

Cool thanks for your input!

I understand that the vala code would be not so readable as to a code
developed by a real developer, but from a maintainability point of view,
what is better? C code or unreadable vala code? :)

Let's see if I have time to investigate your ideas. I would do it as you
suggest, first focus on simple types, and then progress from that.

        Andres

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