Re: External dependency proposal: Vala

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 12/10/09 16:10, Ryan Lortie wrote:
> Hi

Hi,

> I'd like to propose Vala as an official external dependency for GNOME
> 2.30.
>
> Some GNOME modules are already using Vala, but they are placing
> generated .c/.h files into version control to avoid the need for other
> contributors to have Vala installed.  That's just ugly. :(
>
> Using Vala to compile a program introduces no additional run-time
> dependencies (Vala produces straight-up GLib-based C code).
>
> In its typical use, Vala also introduces no additional dependencies for
> building tarballs; distributions will have no additional burden placed
> on them.  This is because 'make dist' typically includes the
> generated .c and .h files into the tarball, making 'valac' only required
> for building from git (or, of course, if you change .vala files).
>
> This is therefore a 'special' external dependency: it would only be
> required when building from git (or hacking on the code).
>
> It makes sense that we depend on the most recently available version at
> this point -- 0.7.7.

We have been using Vala in Tracker for some parts of the code base 
(where it makes sense) and some of the applications are even written in 
it too (tracker-preferences, tracker-explorer). Some of the core 
libraries even use it and have done in master (0.7) for some time now.

The API stability is really the only issue, we have had to upgrade a few 
times for some of the newer features, but if Jürg is saying that will 
become stable from 0.8, that satisfies me.

It works quite well for us, so +1 from me.

--
Regards,
Martyn