I'm playing lately with Vala and Cairo and got interested - does any of you use Vala for Maemo/Hildon development and what are your overall thoughts on the language.

Also i'm searching for a good Vala IDE if there is any (upgrading to Gnome 2.22 now to try Anjuta 2.4)?

I started to look at Vala some months ago, and compiled a few test programs. Since then there's been progress, the language has evolved and there are more bindings. What looks really nice is that there's a Hildon binding (the OS2008 kind, not the OS2007 kind, which is why I haven't written anything yet that'll execute on my N800), and what's more - Debian (for the desktop) now includes full Hildon, so the application I started on a while ago compiles and run on my Debian computer - hildonized and all. When the time comes it should be just a recompile to make it run on my N800 (when I get around to switch to OS2008).

As for IDEs, I don't personally care much for those, I just need an Emacs binding. For now C-mode works close enough, but I'm sure someone has a Vala binding somewhere.

I tried few small things with D-BUS. This is really pain to do in C and I still consider python a bit bloated and complex to install on device for average person (until we have supported it officially and with the promising quick launcher) so Vala is best fit for stuff like replacement of kbbd with a bit of UI etc. Current 0.2.0 seems to compile in chinook again. Too bad we don't have vala for Bora (OS2007HE). I hope that they at least won't move faster than IT200x in minimal glib/gtk/whatever version support.

I've found out that MonoDevelop has a Vala plugin and along with the features and project support of the IDE you can have a very good working environment. As I understand you can even setup the project build to be done in scratchbox, since it uses scripts for that. I'll update the thread when i know more.

I've bundled vala and libgee into Extras-devel using mud, and will promote them to Extras - after some further testing - hopefully this weekend along with a simple demo app.

Personally, I'm quite excited about Vala for the tablets: the advantages of a high-level language (like C#, Java or Python) with none of the downsides.

IDE support would be good, but there are plugins for GEdit which help with internal navigation.

On device IDE or external in scratchbox?

External outside of scratchbox, but if Geany adds support for Vala, you can have it on the device. Vala compilation on device will be very slow though.

I've been eyeing Vala for a while and i'm hopeful Nokia can notice the potential it has. The lack of documentation and proper tools are a problem for its current usage, but if grown properly this language can singlehandedly boost maemo development in the future.

Indeed, vala is an interesting prospect although I get a feeling that python is 'old' now so the cool kids are moving on to the next new hip thing.

No, Python is ******ed now, same as it's always been.

Subjective flamebait aside, certainly some people want to always play with a new language, but I do think that's a small factor in this area.