[Geany-devel] GObject, new plugin interface .... & Vala bindings

Lex Trotman elextr at xxxxx
Sat Apr 30 12:46:32 UTC 2011


> It just seems like a lot of work. Vala is quite high level, I have to
> wonder whether all the disruption is worth it.
>

Hi Nick, I have suggested that the new plugin API be GObjects which
are just thin shells referring everything to the existing Geany
structures like GeanyDocument.  The GObject methods just called one or
more Geany functions that work on the existing structures.  The only
disruption I can see in core would be that it would need to emit the
signals on these objects.

Even if there is one GObject per Geany structure (well the ones needed
by plugins anyway) this would somewhat insulate the plugin interface
from changes in the Geany structures since the GObject methods can be
pointed at different places in the core without affecting the plugin
API.

Since there is this insulation I tried to start the discussion whether
the best set of GObjects was to have one per Geany structure or a
different set of GObjects that used more than one Geany structure,
making the GObjects a little more complicated but their use by plugins
easier.  But the discussion didn't seem to go anywhere.

But when I queried how these GObjects could be written in Vala no one
knew since its documentation is a bit lacking (as in missing entirely)
when it comes to interfacing to C.

Cheers
Lex



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