vala: Port Vala to Meson #969

Diego-Ivan · 2024-07-12T16:09:44Z

This PR ports Vala from scripts to Meson, and introduces a minimal Vala template with the Workbench API file and a meson build file.

Fixes #964
Fixes #913

sonnyp

Thanks for working on this!

One thing to keep in mind is we need to keep compiling existing Vala project so please make sure that's working

I will let @lw64 do the first review

Diego-Ivan · 2024-07-14T23:29:02Z

@sonnyp Existing sessions and all the demos work as expected. Projects don't, because meson won't accept the file paths given by a portal. I tested this with Rust/cargo and it happens too.

A possible solution might be copying the Vala sources to a temporary folder that meson accepts (like the cache directory) and compile it there. The source files are usually small so it shouldn't be expensive. What do you think?

sonnyp · 2024-07-16T10:34:48Z

meson won't accept the file paths given by a portal

why not?

Diego-Ivan · 2024-07-17T05:18:32Z

Same as #846 unfortunately :(

sonnyp · 2024-10-07T14:32:35Z

Same as #846 unfortunately :(

I see

A possible solution might be copying the Vala sources to a temporary folder that meson accepts (like the cache directory) and compile it there. The source files are usually small so it shouldn't be expensive. What do you think?

Sounds interesting, perhaps we can solve #846 the same way if it turns out to be a good idea.

I'm also interested to avoid having a builddir in the project directory.

Wanna give it a try?

sonnyp · 2024-10-07T14:33:17Z

I tested this and besides projects it seems to work great. I also merged main into your branch and fixed conflicts.

Diego-Ivan · 2024-10-08T15:02:45Z

I'm also interested to avoid having a builddir in the project directory.

I think it would be better too, since Meson's builddirs can break between major versions, and old projects may break as a consequence of this.

I'll give it a try this week :)

Initial work to port Vala to Meson

Closes #913

This function will allow to create temporary directory. This will allow, for instance, meson to create a builddir that will not be stored inside a session.

This allows to compile projects without granting access to the filesystem. Additionally, all sessions opened that compile Vala code will use the same build directory, allowing us to reuse the same meson configuration.

Diego-Ivan · 2024-10-14T18:32:28Z

I think this PR is ready! A little summary of the changes:

Vala projects will be built in the /tmp/vala directory, instead of the working directory of the session.
The /tmp/vala folder will contain all the files necessary to compile a session. Every time Run is clicked, the main.vala file in the tmp folder will be replaced by the demo's/project's main.vala. Probably we can do this with Rust too, so we don't have to grant filesystem permissions to compile projects.

Also updated the newer demos in workbenchdev/demos#187, tested locally and CI passed, so this is ready for review.

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:16:41Z

src/cli/main.js

+      const current_dir = Gio.File.new_for_path(GLib.get_current_dir());
+
+      const template_dir = GLib.getenv("FLATPAK_ID")
+        ? Gio.File.new_for_path(
+            `/app/share/${GLib.getenv("FLATPAK_ID")}/langs/vala/template`,
+          )
+        : current_dir.resolve_relative_path("src/langs/vala/template");
+
+      const api_file = template_dir.get_child("workbench.vala");
+      api_file.copy(


Suggested change

const current_dir = Gio.File.new_for_path(GLib.get_current_dir());

const template_dir = GLib.getenv("FLATPAK_ID")

? Gio.File.new_for_path(

`/app/share/${GLib.getenv("FLATPAK_ID")}/langs/vala/template`,

)

: current_dir.resolve_relative_path("src/langs/vala/template");

const api_file = template_dir.get_child("workbench.vala");

api_file.copy(

const template_dir = Gio.File.new_for_path(pkg.pkgdatadir).get_child("langs/vala/template");

template_dir.get_child("workbench.vala").copy(

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:24:00Z

src/langs/vala/Compiler.js

-
-// Takes a string starting with the line
-// #!/usr/bin/env -S vala workbench.vala --pkg gtk4 --pkg libadwaita-1
-// and return ["--pkg", "gtk4", "--pkg", "libadwaita-1"]
-// FIXME: consider using https://docs.gtk.org/glib/struct.OptionContext.html instead
-function getValaCompilerArguments(text) {
-  return text.split("\n")[0]?.split("-S vala ")[1]?.split(" ") || [];
-}


sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:24:33Z

src/langs/vala/Compiler.js

-      "--vapi",
-      "/dev/null",
-      ...args,
+    const meson_clean = meson_launcher.spawnv([


why cleaning?

When replacing the file in the build dir, meson will not detect any changes on the file, thus not compiling anything and just running the project right away. This is a problem when a user has two open projects and working on them simultaneously, so I went for cleaning the build files and recompiling. I thought this approach was OK since we don't really compile much.

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:25:27Z

src/langs/vala/Compiler.js

+import { createTmpDir, copy } from "../../util.js";
+import { setupValaProject } from "./vala.js";
+
+let ready_to_build = false;


I'm confused about why this is needed

I did this to know if the Vala builddir was already setup (as it needs a meson file and the workbench API). This could be done checking if a build file (like workbench.vala) exists, but I went for this instead as it is one less I/O operation.

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:28:14Z

src/langs/vala/template/meson.build

+    dependency('libadwaita-1'),
+    dependency('shumate-1.0'),
+    dependency('libportal-gtk4'),
+    dependency('libsoup-3.0'),
+    dependency('webkitgtk-6.0'),
+    dependency('gstreamer-1.0'),
+    dependency('gtksourceview-5'),
+    dependency('json-glib-1.0'),


Suggested change

dependency('libadwaita-1'),

dependency('shumate-1.0'),

dependency('libportal-gtk4'),

dependency('libsoup-3.0'),

dependency('webkitgtk-6.0'),

dependency('gstreamer-1.0'),

dependency('gtksourceview-5'),

dependency('json-glib-1.0'),

dependency('libadwaita-1'),

dependency('shumate-1.0'),

dependency('libportal-gtk4'),

dependency('libsoup-3.0'),

dependency('webkitgtk-6.0'),

dependency('gstreamer-1.0'),

dependency('gtksourceview-5'),

dependency('json-glib-1.0'),

dependency('libspelling-1'),

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:31:10Z

src/langs/vala/vala.js

+  // VLS needs the project to be already setup once it starts,
+  // otherwise it won't pick it up later.
+  setupValaProject(file.get_parent()).catch(console.error);


is it possible to move the meson and workbench.vala files under a subdir? to avoid cluttering the project

and we might need meson.build for other purposes too

Sure, I think this is possible. Would that subdir still be inside the project folder? Or do you mean saving just the main.vala in the project directory and get rid of all of the build stuff? I'm guessing this last option is also possible.

sonnyp · 2024-10-18T10:34:57Z

src/util.js

+
+const tmp_dirs = {};
+
+export async function createTmpDir(filename) {


checkout

https://gjs-docs.gnome.org/gio20~2.0/gio.file#function-new_tmp

https://docs.gtk.org/glib/type_func.Dir.make_tmp.html

Thanks, I'll check them out!

Diego-Ivan requested a review from lw64 as a code owner July 12, 2024 16:09

Diego-Ivan requested a review from sonnyp July 12, 2024 16:10

Diego-Ivan marked this pull request as draft July 12, 2024 16:39

Diego-Ivan marked this pull request as ready for review July 13, 2024 21:23

Diego-Ivan mentioned this pull request Jul 13, 2024

vala: Adapt Vala demos to Meson workbenchdev/demos#187

Draft

sonnyp reviewed Jul 14, 2024

View reviewed changes

Diego-Ivan added 5 commits October 14, 2024 10:19

vala: Create Vala template

7f6e023

Initial work to port Vala to Meson

vala: Compile and run using Meson

0672cbb

vala: Setup Vala project before starting the language server

7172d06

Closes #913

util: Add createTmpDir function

7826298

This function will allow to create temporary directory. This will allow, for instance, meson to create a builddir that will not be stored inside a session.

vala: Compile inside a temporary directory

4696398

This allows to compile projects without granting access to the filesystem. Additionally, all sessions opened that compile Vala code will use the same build directory, allowing us to reuse the same meson configuration.

Diego-Ivan force-pushed the diego-ivan/vala-meson branch from a4447eb to 4696398 Compare October 14, 2024 16:33

cli: Use Meson in Vala checks

fc77803

Diego-Ivan force-pushed the diego-ivan/vala-meson branch from 7bb18f8 to fc77803 Compare October 14, 2024 17:31

sonnyp reviewed Oct 18, 2024

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vala: Port Vala to Meson #969

vala: Port Vala to Meson #969

Diego-Ivan commented Jul 12, 2024 •

edited by sonnyp

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		const tmp_dirs = {};

		export async function createTmpDir(filename) {

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vala: Port Vala to Meson #969

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Diego-Ivan commented Jul 12, 2024 •

edited by sonnyp

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