Re: [Vala] Vala on Windows/Mac OS

[Jim Peters <jim uazu net>]

Brian Duffy wrote:
> If you really want to know if Vala can work effectively on Windows
> then you better try installing Vala (and Gtk) on windows and give it
> a whirl.

It might be easier to look for apps written in Vala with
well-supported builds for Windows.  For example there is a list of
apps at the bottom of the page here to start with:

  http://live.gnome.org/Vala/Documentation

For example ShotWell doesn't support Windows now, but according to
this message, it used to support it but it was dropped for lack of
interest (search down for "Windows"):

  http://blog.yorba.org/lucas/2011/01/shotwell-081-released.html


Also, writing the base tools of a language (compiler/etc) can be the
work of one or two people, but writing a good IDE is usually much more
work and requires a team.  I'm hacking with Eclipse JDT right now, and
seeing the Eclipse source code I realise that the investment that went
into that was incredible -- just so you can have quick fixes and easy
refactoring.  They attempted the impossible and achieved it, and now
everyone takes it for granted.

(My interest right now is writing an editor that works off the AST not
the source code.  This means that I could have the editor show any
syntax I like, and still reformat it back to conventional syntax for
saving (and with some further tweaking, minimise the diff).  Java is a
good start because Eclipse have already done a lot of the work for me,
and because I'm going to have to be coding in Java soon for a contract
anyway.  One day I wonder whether it would be possible to specify a
language that is saved as an AST dump, and which displays to each user
according to their syntax preferences, e.g. Python-like for one
person, C-braces for another, functional style for another.  This
would also make it easier for refactoring tools.  Worth experimenting
with.)

Jim

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