https://crystal-lang.org/

Experimented. Made a websocket app. Compiled to nice single binary. Package management bit meh. Some std issues but it's soon I guess?

Am I late of early to this party?

Thoughts / experiences regarding this language anyone?

@chatgpt crystal-lang overview of why it exists

@jestdotty
Crystal is a statically-typed, compiled programming language that was created with the goal of combining the elegance and expressiveness of Ruby with the speed and efficiency of C. It aims to provide a high-performance alternative to popular dynamically typed languages like Ruby, while still maintaining a developer-friendly syntax and features like type inference.

One of the key motivations behind the development of Crystal was to leverage the benefits of a compiled language in terms of performance and efficiency, while still allowing developers to write clean and concise code. By offering a familiar Ruby-like syntax, Crystal makes it easier for Ruby developers to transition to a more efficient language without sacrificing the ease of use and simplicity they are accustomed to.

In addition to its performance benefits, Crystal also comes with a powerful macro system that allows developers to write code that is both efficient and expressive. This feature, along with its stati

c typing system, enables developers to catch errors at compile time rather than runtime, leading to more robust and reliable applications.

Overall, Crystal exists to offer developers a modern, efficient, and developer-friendly alternative to dynamically typed languages like Ruby, while still maintaining the flexibility and expressiveness that make them popular among developers. It aims to bridge the gap between high-level scripting languages and low-level compiled languages, providing a best-of-both-worlds solution for those looking for a performant and expressive language for their projects.

it isnt a "full" language but a C/pp wrapper-ish like Python is, no? if im reading their landing page correctly

@azuredivay Python is not a C/CPP wrapper mate.

@hjk101 hmmmmmm

@hjk101 isnt it? all PY compiles to C/PP binaries if I remember right
Like TS is to JS

@azuredivay python is interpreted and i think they introduce some kind of bytecode now like java. Nothing compiled to C as far as I know

Really interesting ideas on the website, very active development, probably won't get around to trying it for a while but I wonder if they have a breakdown of the type system somewhere because I like the booleans and would like to see if and how they combined generics with them.

The main reason union types are unpopular is that they interact weirdly with generic constraints. But I also see that constraints are implicit? Again, really interesting stuff.

looking at recently closed issues, it definitely doesn't seem like a project in decline. I really should find some time to test drive it.

@azuredivay see what @antigermgerm said. You can also run python code in REPL no compilation going on there. Also not all compilation is C/CPP. There are some true wrapper languages out there but calling python a wrapper language is like calling C/CPP just an assembly wrapper (and that would be more true)