Vala

What Vala is

Vala is an open-source programming language for developing native applications. It compiles to C and produces native binaries, with no separate runtime environment required for execution. Reference counting provides automatic memory management. The language includes type inference, null safety, generics, lambdas, and async/await. Vala works with GObject-based C libraries through binding files and can call C functions directly. It integrates with the GObject type system and GNOME platform, including first-class GTK support. Developers can use it for graphical applications, command-line programs, libraries, and services. The project highlights GTK, Libadwaita, and Granite for GUI development and says applications can be published on Flathub. Vala libraries provide C header files and use GObject; the compiler generates GObject Introspection metadata for supported language bindings. The project lists Vala 0.56.17 as stable long-term support and the main branch as development. Made by the Vala Community, it runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows; community discussion is available through GNOME Discourse, Matrix, and Discord.