Designed by Ary Borenszweig, Crystal is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language developed by Manas Technology Solutions in 2011.
Soon after the language, originally named Joy, was created, Borenszweig was joined by Brian Cardiff, Juan Wajnerman, and a large team of developers from Manas Technology Solutions for its development. Currently, the language is still under active maintenance and development as an open-source project on GitHub.
The first Crystal compiler was written in Ruby, but later rewritten in Crystal, becoming self-hosting in 2013.
It is available as free and open-source software under the Apache License version 2.0. It is cross-platform, supporting Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD, with Windows support under active development.
The goal of the developers is to create a language that is as fast as C and as slick as Ruby. Like Ruby, Crystal offers an object-oriented foundation with functional flavors. The language features full object-orientation; everything is an object in Crystal. It is said to be easier to program at a lower level in Crystal than in Ruby, and that Crystal programs execute faster than equivalent programs coded in Ruby. The language is a good complement to Ruby, as Crystal can yield better performance in places where Ruby is in need of it, while Ruby can play a dynamic role in other parts of an application.
Crystal was influenced by Ruby, of course, but also by C#, Elixir, Erlang, Go, Julia, Python, Rust, and Swift.
The focal point of this category is the Crystal programming language, listing topics related to the language, such as the Crystal project sites, those promoting IDEs, editors, compilers, or tools designed to facilitate programming in Crystal, as well as Crystal user groups, support forums, tutorials, guides, and other content related to the language.
Recommended Resources
Amber is a web development framework written in the Crystal programming language, offering a familiar set of tools for fast prototyping and developing enterprise-grade web applications, such as generators, database management, command-line interface, deployment tools, docker support, encrypted secrets, WebSockets, and other features. Full documentation is available, including installation guides, brand information, logos, and an informational blog. It may be downloaded from GitHub.
https://amberframework.org/
Sometimes known as Crystal Ameba, Ameba is a static code analysis tool for the Crystal programming language, enforcing a consistent code style and catching code smells and wrong code constructions. Inspired by Crystal, Rubocop, Credo, and Dogma, it integrates with Vim, Emacs, Sublime Text, and VSCode. Its features, documentation, and an informational blog are available, along with an active live chat. Hosted on GitHub, it is available as open-source software.
https://crystal-ameba.github.io/
Heavily inspired by Ruby, the Crystal programming language feels natural to read and easy to write to, making it a good second language for Ruby programmers. Its features and distinctions are highlighted and, as an open-source language (Apache License 2.0), its packages may be freely downloaded. A playground allows users to try the language out in their browser. Full documentation, including an installation guide for several platforms, is available, along with sponsor acknowledgments.
https://crystal-lang.org/
Intended for Ruby programmers, the site introduces the Crystal programming language, and offers a tutorial, which should be of use to programmers of other languages as well. The attributes of Crystal are given, and the traditional “Hello World” program code is presented. Instructions for installing Crystal and writing the first program in the language are detailed, followed by creating a new project, testing, types, and method overloading, concurrency and channels, and other variables.
https://www.crystalforrubyists.com/
Crystal [ANN] is intended as a portal where announcement relating to the Crystal programming language, the Crystal user community, and third-party resources designed for use with Crystal, can be announced. Built with Amber Web Framework, announcements posted here will appear on this site, on Twitter, and distributed over RSS. Anyone involved in Crystal development, or tools for the language, is invited to post announcements, give it a star, or report an issue.
https://crystal-ann.com/
As an open-source programming language, Crystal is being developed at Manas Technology, as well as the developer community at GitHub. It can also be downloaded from the GitHub site, along with APIs, scripts, bindings, and other resources, such as documentation and source codes. Links to other resources that can be used for Crystal programming are also available, along with a list of people who have contributed to the project, and any public projects related to the language.
https://github.com/crystal-lang/
