`break;`

[elsiehupp]

In the README you say:

Break keyword in Vala

break;

To this day, I am still not entirely sure what the break keyword does, but most languages support it.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't know this given your experience, but break is used for exiting loops or switch statements. So, for example, you could do this absurd while loop:

int i = 0;
while true {
    i++
    if (i > 99) {
        break;
    }
}

(I say this is absurd because you would usually use a for loop instead.)

Or:

switch(color) {

case "yellow":
    print("yellow");
    break;

case "red" :
    print("red");
    break;

case "green":
    print("green");
    break;

case "purple":
    print("purple");
    break;

default:
    print("dunno");
    break;

}

print("done!");

(This might not quite be accurate Vala syntax. I don't use Vala very much.)

Basically without the break, even after matching, the switch will "fall through" and check the input variable against the next case. Sometimes you want this, but usually you don't. Incidentally some languages automatically break in switch statements even without the break keyword.

The Python equivalent is like this:

#
# with break
#

if color == "yellow":
    print("yellow")

elif color == "red":
    print("red")

#
# without break
#

if color == "yellow":
    print("yellow")

if color == "red":
    print("red")

Do you see the difference? break works kind of like elif (for additional cases) or else (for default).

Anyway personally I hate switch statements because they use weird syntax and are less intuitive to read. The Python-style series of if statements is much more legible. break is still useful for weird loop conditions, though.

[elsiehupp]

By the way, looking at your GitHub, you seem absolutely awesomely batshit kickass insane, which I mean as the greatest compliment.