[Vala] Introduction and Syntax Error When Compiling GTK Example

[Landon Blake <sunburned surveyor gmail com>]

This is my first post to the Vala mailing list, so let me make a brief
introduction. I've just started learning Vala. I've been a Java
programmer and a Linux for several years.

I'm getting an error when I try to execute the first GTK programming
example found on this page from the command prompt/terminal:
https://live.gnome.org/Vala/GTKSample

When I attempt to execute the program from the terminal I get multiple
lines with these statements:

invalid character literal
syntax error, unexpected literal

It is like the program is stuck on a loop or choking on each character
in the strings in the example.

The funny thing is, when I double click on the executable file in
Nautilus, the program runs without any problems. Any ideas what might
be going on? I'm running the latest stable version of Ubuntu and I
have the GTK 3.0 libraries installed.

Landon