{{language
|site=http://live.gnome.org/Vala
|exec=machine
|gc=no
|safety=safe
|parampass=both
|checking=static
|compat=nominative
|express=explicit
|strength=strong
|tags=vala
|LCT=no
}}
'''Vala''' is a programming language created with the goal of bringing modern language features to [[C]], with no added runtime requirements and with little overhead, by targeting the GObject object system. It is being developed by Jürg Billeter and Raffaele Sandrini. The syntax borrows heavily from [[C#]]. Rather than being compiled directly to assembler or other intermediate representation, Vala is compiled to C source, which is then compiled with a platform's standard C compiler.

The '''valac''' compiler also supports a language dialect called [[Genie]], that more closely resembles [[Python]] syntax.  '''Genie''' syntax requires indentation based code structure blocking.  The '''Genie''' dialect is also compiled to C on way to native executable by '''valac'''.