Vala: Gotchas, Tips and Tricks

Question

As a programmer who is new to Vala, what is your number one piece of advice to someone who is new to the language?

Answer 1

Caveat: I am not familiar with Vala, but hopefully my answer applies to learning any new language. I just want to offer some thoughts in case they help...I should definitely not get the bounty for my answer.

Bottom line: It depends on why you are learning it...

If you are intrigued because it is a cool new language, but you are not sure how you might use it in practice, try recreating/porting something with which you are deeply familiar to see how it compares.

If you are learning it because you believe it solves a specific problem you are facing, make sure it is worth the up-front investment, since learning any new language can be incredibly time consuming, and there may be a reasonable solution in a more familiar language.

Otherwise, it's all about how you learn best. Are you someone who needs to understand the internals of the language, or just get things done quickly? (Or, like me, somewhere in the middle?) For the getting things done approach, I just look for simple tutorials and try to get something basic up and running to see how it feels. If I am enjoying the language, then I'll start to read more in-depth information about the language and understand what's going on under the hood.

Whatever your approach, best of luck!