Re: [Vala] How small can you go with Vala? Was: Just a news I've read about popularity langage

[Al Thomas <astavale yahoo co uk>]

      From: Dr. Michael Lauer <mickey vanille de>
 Sent: Friday, 22 July 2016, 15:42
 Subject: Re: [Vala] Just a news I've read about popularity langage
   
> As an embedded system engineer I see huge potential using Vala in embedded
> Linux, it has not the runtime drawback of python and java, and is way
> simpler to use than C++, while C# has no porting to ARM.

Yes. Unfortunately though the very useful POSIX profile has been removed from VALA
and no substitute has been added.

With a bit of work you could code without any dependency on GLib/GObject.The basic types, int, etc. , can be 
rebound in a new binding. See the glib-2.0.vapifor how int is bound to gint, etc. and then chance those to 
standard C.

Last time I tried I seem to remember a problem with valac when using --nostdpkgSo that may need to be fixed 
first.
On IRC someone said they were using musl instead of glibc for Vala programs.
Not using GLib would still have the advantages of namespaces, compact classes andVala's assisted memory 
management for bindings. So the loss of the Posix profileis not such a great loss, it depends on what you are 
trying to achieve. 

If you want more sophisticated features like async have a look at:https://github.com/apmasell/avr-vala
On the other hand a few megabytes for GLib is not a lot for modern 
"embedded" systems running a linux distro.
Al