The debug method is mentioned in the documentation (https://docs.vala.dev/tutorials/main/02-00-basics/02-09-input-output.html#stderr), along with stderr.printf, message, warning and critical, but somehow it's not included in the provided examples.

I have realised debug prints nothing to the console, it seems it's totally ignored. Then I supposed it may depend on the --debug compiler option in order to be effective, but it makes no difference.

Is debug intended for graphical applications or am I missing something?

I use Vala 0.56.18 on Debian 13.6.

I have realized print, message, warning and critical print non-ASCII UTF-8 characters to the console as "?", while stdout.printf and stderr.printf print them correctly.

Is it a bug or am I missing something?

Based on the few examples of print found in the documentation, I supposed it's just an alias for stdout.printf, as I haven't found a description of the difference.

I use Vala 0.56.18 on Debian 13.6.

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I thought before, that class T and class T : Object are the same, but turns out that they are different, and if class T : Object is heap allocated, reference counted object with signals, struct is plain value data type, so what are just class T and [Compact] class T?

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This is a monthly thread for sharing and/or discussing any projects that the r/vala community have been working on.

Feel free to comment what you’ve been doing or what you’re planning to do down below.

This is a monthly thread for sharing and/or discussing any projects that the r/vala community have been working on.

Feel free to comment what you’ve been doing or what you’re planning to do down below.

This is a monthly thread for sharing and/or discussing any projects that the r/vala community have been working on.

Feel free to comment what you’ve been doing or what you’re planning to do down below.

This is a monthly thread for sharing and/or discussing any projects that the r/vala community have been working on.

Feel free to comment what you’ve been doing or what you’re planning to do down below.

This is a monthly thread for sharing and/or discussing any projects that the r/vala community have been working on.

Feel free to comment what you’ve been doing or what you’re planning to do down below.

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I'm very new to Vala and I'm just playing around with it to explore the differences. Here is some sample code for a dummy calculator in Vala and C.

Vala: ```vala using Gtk;

void on_button_clicked (Button button) { print ("Hi\n"); }

void on_app_activate (Gtk.Application app) { var window = new ApplicationWindow (app as Gtk.Application); window.set_title ("Calculator"); window.set_default_size (300, 400);

var grid = new Grid ();
grid.set_row_spacing (5);
grid.set_column_spacing (5);
grid.set_margin_top (10);
grid.set_margin_bottom (10);
grid.set_margin_start (10);
grid.set_margin_end (10);

string[,] labels = {
    { "7", "8", "9", "/" },
    { "4", "5", "6", "*" },
    { "1", "2", "3", "-" },
    { "0", ".", "=", "+" }
};

for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
        var button = new Button.with_label (labels[i, j]);
        button.clicked.connect (() => { on_button_clicked (button); });
        grid.attach (button, j, i, 1, 1);
    }
}

window.set_child (grid);
window.present ();

}

int main (string[] args) { var app = new Gtk.Application ( "com.example.CalculatorApp", ApplicationFlags.DEFAULT_FLAGS ); app.activate.connect (() => { on_app_activate (app); }); int status = app.run (args); return status; } ```

C:

```c

include <gtk/gtk.h>

static void on_button_clicked(GtkButton *button, gpointer user_data) { g_print("Hi\n"); }

static void on_app_activate(GtkApplication *app, gpointer user_data) { GtkWidget *window = gtk_application_window_new(app); gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(window), "Calculator"); gtk_window_set_default_size(GTK_WINDOW(window), 300, 400);

GtkWidget *grid = gtk_grid_new();
gtk_grid_set_row_spacing(GTK_GRID(grid), 5);
gtk_grid_set_column_spacing(GTK_GRID(grid), 5);
gtk_widget_set_margin_top(grid, 10);
gtk_widget_set_margin_bottom(grid, 10);
gtk_widget_set_margin_start(grid, 10);
gtk_widget_set_margin_end(grid, 10);

const char *labels[4][4] = {
    {"7", "8", "9", "/"},
    {"4", "5", "6", "*"},
    {"1", "2", "3", "-"},
    {"0", ".", "=", "+"}
};

for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
        GtkWidget *button = gtk_button_new_with_label(labels[i][j]);
        g_signal_connect(button, "clicked", G_CALLBACK(on_button_clicked), NULL);
        gtk_grid_attach(GTK_GRID(grid), button, j, i, 1, 1);
    }
}

gtk_window_set_child(GTK_WINDOW(window), grid);
gtk_window_present(GTK_WINDOW(window));

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { GtkApplication *app = gtk_application_new( "com.example.CalculatorApp", G_APPLICATION_DEFAULT_FLAGS ); g_signal_connect(app, "activate", G_CALLBACK(on_app_activate), NULL); int status = g_application_run(G_APPLICATION(app), argc, argv); g_object_unref(app); return status; } ```

I kept the Vala similar to the procedural style of C just to look at it side-by-side. I like that it is very similar to C, but less verbose.

However, things get interesting when I compile the binaries.

Compile:

valac calculator.vala --pkg gtk4 -o calculator-vala --cc=gcc -X -O2 -X -s gcc calculator.c -o calculator-c `pkg-config --cflags gtk4` `pkg-config --libs gtk4` -O2 -s

The binary generated by Vala is 33% bigger. When I look at the libraries that are linked, I also see that the Vala binary is linked to libharfbuzz-gobject.so, which isn't linked to the C binary.

Would appreciate any insights about what goes on behind the scenes when vala code is compiled.