Getting Started

Before we can begin programming, we need to install GTK and Vala, along with their dependencies.

Added on 30th July 2013

Installation

Before we can begin programming, we need to install GTK+ and Vala, along with their dependencies.

Installing GTK+

You may install GTK+ and its various dependencies from source by downloading several archives, untarring them and running ./configure, make and make install to install them.

However, if you're using a Linux distribution with a package manager, it is easier to install the precompiled packages from the distribution's repositories. The packages would also receive security updates and any other upgrades as they are rolled out by the distribution.

You need to install the -dev packages that contain the header files and static libraries that are needed to compile GTK+ applications. Installing the GTK+ development package will also install all its dependecies (the header files for GLib, gdk-pixbuf, etc).

On Debian and its derivatives, the command to do this would be:

# apt-get install libgtk-3-dev

On Fedora, it would be:

# yum install libgtk-3-dev

You may also use your distribution's graphical software management tools like the Ubuntu Software Centre, Synaptic, or PackageKit.

Installing Vala

You can install Vala by building from source. First, one obtains the vala source code by downloading a tarball from the vala releases page (https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/Release) and extracting it and running ./configure, make and make install in the source folder.

Alternatively, you may install vala from your distribution's repositories.

On Debian and its derivatives, you would run:

# apt-get install valac

And on Fedora, one would run:

# yum install valac

You may also use your distribution's graphical software management tools like the Ubuntu Software Centre or Synaptic.

References and Further Reading