Crystal (programming language)

Crystal (programming language)

Crystal is a compiled, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language with a syntax similar to Ruby. It has static type checking, bindings to C libraries, and claims to have performance comparable to statically typed languages like C++ and Go.
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compiled generalpurpose objectoriented static-typing bindings-to-c-libraries performance

Crystal: Compiled General-Purpose Programming Language

A compiled object-oriented language with static type checking, bindings to C libraries, and performance comparable to statically typed languages like C++ and Go.

What is Crystal (programming language)?

Crystal is an open-source, compiled, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language developed by Manas Technology Solutions. It has the following key features:

  • Syntax inspired by Ruby for developer familiarity and productivity
  • Statically typed for speed and type safety
  • Type inference so most type annotations are unnecessary
  • Compiles to efficient native code via LLVM backend
  • Bindings to C libraries for leverage of existing code
  • Concurrency primitives like fibers, channels, and parallelism
  • Claims to have performance comparable to languages like C++ and Go
  • Automatic memory management with garbage collection
  • Macros, generics, exceptions, and other modern language features

Crystal positions itself as an alternative to Ruby for situations where higher performance is needed. It allows developers familiar with Ruby's syntax to write fast, statically-checked applications without sacrificing too much developer productivity. The compile-time type checking catches bugs earlier. Overall, Crystal aims to combine the concise syntax and productivity of Ruby with the performance and type safety of more traditional systems languages.

Crystal (programming language) Features

Features

  1. Statically typed language
  2. Infer types so explicit typing is optional
  3. Compiles to efficient native code
  4. Syntax similar to Ruby
  5. Interoperability with C code
  6. Macros
  7. Fibers for lightweight concurrency
  8. Pattern matching

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Very fast execution

Easy to learn for Ruby developers

Produces small binaries

Strong type safety

Cons

Limited libraries compared to other languages

Newer language so fewer resources available

Not as widely used as other languages yet


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