Hello, World!

Write and run a Vala program

Type this code into a file named hello.vala:

int main (string[] args) {
    stdout.printf ("Hello, World!");
    return 0;
}

Then go to the terminal in the directory of this file and compile the program. This will result in an executable hello file.

valac hello.vala

To execute it, do:

./hello

This should output:

Hello, World!

Explanation

First, we define a method, called main:

int main (string[] args) {

The main-method is always the entrypoint for a Vala program.

Then inside of it, there is

stdout.printf ("Hello, World!");

This calls printf, a method, that prints text out on the commandline.

And finally the program returns 0, a value meaning success.

return 0;