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> custom language Vala wasn't a custom language for elementaryOS, it already existed for years before the first version of the OS (and i think the first versio

> custom language Vala wasn't a custom language for elementaryOS, it already existed for years before the first version of the OS (and i think the first version didn't use any Vala code). It most likely used instead of Objective-C because its object system was built on top of glib's gobject system and elementaryOS used Gtk and a lot of other glib/gobject-based libraries. Using Objective-C would mean they'd have to base their UI on GNUstep and GNUstep wasn't as polished as Gtk. Remember that while they used macOS as an inspiration, it was never elementaryOS's goal to make a macOS clone.

actionfromafar 3y ago
Of course they could have used GTK from ObjectiveC, in fact it has been proposed.
- badsectoracula 3y ago
  Of course they could have used Gtk from Objective-C, it is a C superset after all. However it'd be the same as using Gtk from C and the point of using Vala was to use a higher level language which understands the gobject object system and works with its memory management so they wont have to care about it. I have used Vala a bit some years ago to make a Gtk program and it was MUCH easier using it than using Gtk from C directly, so i can understand why they went with it.