no vala autocompletion

[Nicolò Chieffo]

Binary package hint: monodevelop-vala

There's no code autocompletion in vala projects, also CTRL-SPACE does nothing

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: monodevelop-vala 1.9.2-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: monodevelop-vala
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-8-generic i686

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

It seems to depends on libafrodite from vala toys for gedit.

[Leonardo Robol (leo.robol)]

I think this is still present in oneiric. Now monodevelop-vala installs libafrodite, but if I try to write some code I get this traceback in monodevelop:

System.EntryPointNotFoundException: afrodite_completion_engine_try_acquire_ast
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.Afrodite.CompletionEngine:afrodite_completion_engine_try_acquire_ast (intptr,intptr&,int)
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.Afrodite.CompletionEngine.TryAcquireAst () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation.GetSymbolsForFile (System.String file, IEnumerable`1 desiredTypes) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation.GetClassesForFile (System.String file) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation.GetTypesVisibleFrom (System.String filename, Int32 line, Int32 column, MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.ValaCompletionDataList results) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation.GetSymbolsVisibleFrom (System.String filename, Int32 line, Int32 column, MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.ValaCompletionDataList results) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.ValaTextEditorExtension+<GlobalComplete>c__AnonStorey5.<>m__5 (System.Object ) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

It seem that it cannot call afrodite_completion_engine_try_acquire_ast() that has been removed from libafrodite... maybe the vala module needs to be updated to reflect the changes in the library?

[tuxxxy (0xf777)]

Ubuntu 11.04 32-bit, MonoDevelop - 2.6 beta 3, Vala plugin version 2.6
I can compile inside IDE and see output, but debugging is not available, you could only run Vala programs
It's known, that in previous versions of MonoDevelop (2.2), this function was fine
also, code completion seems to not functional too

at least, debugging functionality is very important and Vala support is useless since debugging not available

[Severin H (severinh)]

I can confirm that this problem still exists in the latest MonoDevelop code, even after the changeset cd5506e015cf1e3eff295ebef5719757f7f8a523 ([Vala] Move to vala 0.12.).

The problem is that libafrodite's API still seems to be evolving. The function 'afrodite_completion_engine_get_ast' does not exist anymore in vtg-0.12.1 (only in the betas of vtg-0.12.0). The following stacktrace is produced:

System.EntryPointNotFoundException: afrodite_completion_engine_get_ast
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.Afrodite.CompletionEngine:afrodite_completion_engine_get_ast (intptr)
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.Afrodite.CompletionEngine.TryAcquireAst () [0x00000] in /home/.../monodevelop/extras/ValaBinding/Parser/Afrodite.cs:74
  [...]

When using vtg-0.12.0_beta5, the following stack trace is produced instead:

FATAL ERROR [2011-09-10 16:25:48Z]: Unhandled Exception
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation.GetTypesVisibleFrom (System.String filename, Int32 line, Int32 column, MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.ValaCompletionDataList results) [0x000f6] in /home/.../monodevelop/extras/ValaBinding/Parser/ProjectInformation.cs:309
  [...]

I guess the only way to resolve this problem is to update MonoDevelop's ValaBinding. In the meantime, can you tell me what vtg version/revision the current code targets? I wonder whether the NullPointerException I get with vtg-0.12.0_beta5 is due to not using the right version of vtg or something different.

[Severin H (severinh)]

The following fork fixes the System.EntryPointNotFoundException: https://github.com/severinh/monodevelop-vala-afrodite-update
It takes into account all API changes between vtg-0.12.0_beta5 and vtg-0.12.1.

Now the execution results in a NullReferenceException in MonoDevelop.ValaBinding.Parser.ProjectInformation:309 like the original code did in combination with vtg-0.12.0_beta5.

[Severin H (severinh)]

The reason for the NullReferenceException is that in my case (Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 1), Afrodite.Utils.GetPackagePaths fails to retrieve the package paths for glib-2.0 and gtk+-3.0, because the corresponding VAPI files are located in /usr/share/vala-0.14/vapi rather than /usr/share/vala/vapi.

One can work around it by creating appropriate symlinks. I'm not exactly sure whether this is MonoDevelop's, Afrodite's or the distribution's fault. Nonetheless, Vala autocompletion in MonoDevelop finally works!

[tuxxxy (0xf777)]

Please, explain what I should do to fix both problems: debugging and autocompletion? Step by step...
I have skill of building Mono and MonoDevelop from sources, I have Mono 2.10.4 from PPA. I hope this problem is only MonoDevelop/Vala plugin related?

I'll try to use your https://github.com/severinh/monodevelop-vala-afrodite-update repository...
I understand about symlinks, but how about debugging?

P.S.
I want to introduce Vala language into my company and write programs in this language in MonoDevelop IDE... I need build (it's ok), autocomplete and debugger to make this possible...

[Levi Bard (taktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktak)]

Debugging should just work, provided that you have the gdb debugger backend (monodevelop-debugger-gdb on ubuntu). Are you able to debug C programs from MD?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package monodevelop-vala - 2.8.6.3-2

---------------
monodevelop-vala (2.8.6.3-2) unstable; urgency=low

  * [5758ed1] wrap-and-sort debian folder
  * [05d8eb3] add use-vala-0.14.patch (Closes: #663326, LP: #914824)
  * [2e1f680] minor dep-5 fixes to debian/copyright
  * [db70b72] add libafrodite-0.12-compat.patch (LP: #340506, #716422)

 -- Julian Taylor <email address hidden> Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:07:48 +0200