6 ms·

Crystal 1.2.2 Is Released

114 points by weatherlight 5y ago

rcaught 5y ago
[flagged]
xpressvideoz 5y ago
> We have been able to do all of this thanks to the continued support of 84codes, Nikola Motor Company and every other sponsor. Wait, that Nikola is a sponsor? How? Why?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- a_lost_needle 5y ago
  https://manas.tech/blog/2020/02/11/nikola-motor-company/ https://manas.tech/blog/2020/02/11/nikola-motor-company/
  - jwitthuhn 5y ago
    It seems real strange that they're using Crystal, I don't see "HTML5 Supercomputer" listed as a supported platform.
    - ricardobeat 5y ago
      Mind explaining the joke?
      - jwitthuhn 5y ago
        https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-of-the-new-nikola-hydrogen-electric-truck https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-... See the "Advanced Electronics" section about halfway through the article.
        isaacimagine 5y ago
        > "The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate."
        a_lost_needle 5y ago
        You know SpaceX uses electron for it's UI's, right?
- colesantiago 5y ago
  Because they want to sponsor Crystal? As long as funding is going towards improving the language and ecosystem, I really don't see the issue here.
  - Xevi 5y ago
    Wasn't the company based on lies and fraudulent activities? I remember hearing about it a few months ago. It doesn't look good for a language to be associated with such a company.
    - colesantiago 5y ago
      Complete nonsense. Should I stop using Rust because Facebook / Meta is using it for cryptocurrencies and they want to be a part of growing the Rust ecosystem?
      - ksec 5y ago
        This is interesting considering Rust is the most loved language on HN and Facebook is the most hated company on HN. For any other language or framework I would not be surprised ( I could almost bet ) the common view on HN would be to stop using it, example MySQL, Java etc. But given this is Rust.
      - Xevi 5y ago
        I never told you to stop using anything. Also, which part of my comment is complete nonsense?
        carlivar 5y ago
        "It doesn't look good for a language to be associated with such a company." This is complete nonsense.
    - goatlover 5y ago
      So we should stop using React?
midenginedcoupe 5y ago
Again, another language that doesn't say, front and centre, why it exists and what problems it tries to address. Please, please, tell us what this language is for and why we should use it. "Pretty" syntax isn't it.
- goatlover 5y ago
  It's a compiled, statically-typed alternative to Ruby. If you like Ruby, but you want more performance, and you want your code compiled with static checks, then Crystal is a good alternative. The tradeoff is losing some of the more dynamic, metaprogramming capabilities.
- hencoappel 5y ago
  From their GitHub: Crystal is a programming language with the following goals: Have a syntax similar to Ruby (but compatibility with it is not a goal) Statically type-checked but without having to specify the type of variables or method arguments. Be able to call C code by writing bindings to it in Crystal. Have compile-time evaluation and generation of code, to avoid boilerplate code. Compile to efficient native code.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  It started as sort of a faster version of Ruby, and now is going its own way. It makes sense, as Ruby is an extremely powerful yet simple language, but once you start using it you often wonder how many more applications it could address if it was faster, which is the problem that Crystal wants to solve. Crystal is also smaller than Ruby, so it can become a suitable choice in embedded systems and generally under resources constraints.
  - renewedrebecca 5y ago
    I think the problem with using Crystal in embedded systems is that there's no good way to turn off garbage collection.
- Toutouxc 5y ago
  There used to be this motto on their homepage that said "Fast as C, slick as Ruby", and I thought it really captured the spirit.
open-source-ux 5y ago
Crystal is a very nice language. It is strongly-typed and inspired by Ruby's syntax but not identical to Ruby. Crystal's performance is excellent, but compiling is a little slow. (And no Windows support yet - but under development.) Given these features, there does not appear to be much adoption of Crystal among Ruby developers. It is still early days for the language (post 1.0 release). Some questions for Ruby developers: - Have you taken a look at Crystal? - What is your impression of Crystal? - Are there any features that would make you use the language? (Or reasons for not using Crystal?)
- zem 5y ago
  I was interested in it as a possible language to write cross platform desktop apps in, since distributing end user apps with ruby is a pain, but the lack of windows support made that a non starter.
- Toutouxc 5y ago
  Crystal is currently my go-to language when I want to try something out, like a new algorithm, data structure or problem, and I want to write it in Ruby and have the Ruby kind of fun doing it, but I also want it to be fast and consistent (like in Ruby you can do N-sized input and in Crystal you can do N*10). I don't use it for work because I work for a Rails shop and we're currently happy with Rails.
- Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
  I've taken a look and it's interesting. The two downers for me were: - needless differences to Ruby: for example, the devs have refused to implement single-line if...then...end simply because they don't like it (https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/4117 https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/4117) - cryptic error messages, mostly type-related: this might have got better in subsequent releases, I guess.
  - ksec 5y ago
    I dont understand the hatred for "then" even in Ruby [1]. I have seen a lot of students prefer to put the word "then" to make things easier for them. [1] https://github.com/rubocop/ruby-style-guide#no-then https://github.com/rubocop/ruby-style-guide#no-then
PostThisTooFast 5y ago
Whatever THAT is. Another title failure.
anonyfox 5y ago
I really like crystal (coming from ruby 10 years ago) and I still check it from time to time, but the number one showstopper for me using it more is that static linking is not possible like in Go or Rust. Just compile a binary from my Mac and send it over to peers or compile it within a Github Action/scp it to a plain new linux server/run it - a comfort I am not willing to give up. (No, docker stuff doesn't cut it)
- ksec 5y ago
  > but the number one showstopper for me using it more is that static linking is not possible like in Go or Rust. Which part [1] of it is not possible? [1] https://crystal-lang.org/reference/guides/static_linking.html https://crystal-lang.org/reference/guides/static_linking.htm...
- nsotelo 5y ago
  Not all shows need portability so why stop them all? Desktop applications absolutely, but It's trivial to build, deploy and operate docker containers on servers.

114 points by weatherlight 5y ago

[flagged]

> We have been able to do all of this thanks to the continued support of 84codes, Nikola Motor Company and every other sponsor. Wait, that Nikola is a sponsor? How? Why?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
a_lost_needle 5y ago
https://manas.tech/blog/2020/02/11/nikola-motor-company/ https://manas.tech/blog/2020/02/11/nikola-motor-company/
- jwitthuhn 5y ago
  It seems real strange that they're using Crystal, I don't see "HTML5 Supercomputer" listed as a supported platform.
  - ricardobeat 5y ago
    Mind explaining the joke?
    - jwitthuhn 5y ago
      https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-of-the-new-nikola-hydrogen-electric-truck https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-... See the "Advanced Electronics" section about halfway through the article.
      - isaacimagine 5y ago
        > "The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate."
        a_lost_needle 5y ago
        You know SpaceX uses electron for it's UI's, right?
colesantiago 5y ago
Because they want to sponsor Crystal? As long as funding is going towards improving the language and ecosystem, I really don't see the issue here.
- Xevi 5y ago
  Wasn't the company based on lies and fraudulent activities? I remember hearing about it a few months ago. It doesn't look good for a language to be associated with such a company.
  - colesantiago 5y ago
    Complete nonsense. Should I stop using Rust because Facebook / Meta is using it for cryptocurrencies and they want to be a part of growing the Rust ecosystem?
    - ksec 5y ago
      This is interesting considering Rust is the most loved language on HN and Facebook is the most hated company on HN. For any other language or framework I would not be surprised ( I could almost bet ) the common view on HN would be to stop using it, example MySQL, Java etc. But given this is Rust.
    - Xevi 5y ago
      I never told you to stop using anything. Also, which part of my comment is complete nonsense?
      - carlivar 5y ago
        "It doesn't look good for a language to be associated with such a company." This is complete nonsense.
  - goatlover 5y ago
    So we should stop using React?

midenginedcoupe 5y ago

Again, another language that doesn't say, front and centre, why it exists and what problems it tries to address. Please, please, tell us what this language is for and why we should use it. "Pretty" syntax isn't it.

goatlover 5y ago
It's a compiled, statically-typed alternative to Ruby. If you like Ruby, but you want more performance, and you want your code compiled with static checks, then Crystal is a good alternative. The tradeoff is losing some of the more dynamic, metaprogramming capabilities.
hencoappel 5y ago
From their GitHub: Crystal is a programming language with the following goals: Have a syntax similar to Ruby (but compatibility with it is not a goal) Statically type-checked but without having to specify the type of variables or method arguments. Be able to call C code by writing bindings to it in Crystal. Have compile-time evaluation and generation of code, to avoid boilerplate code. Compile to efficient native code.
squarefoot 5y ago
It started as sort of a faster version of Ruby, and now is going its own way. It makes sense, as Ruby is an extremely powerful yet simple language, but once you start using it you often wonder how many more applications it could address if it was faster, which is the problem that Crystal wants to solve. Crystal is also smaller than Ruby, so it can become a suitable choice in embedded systems and generally under resources constraints.
- renewedrebecca 5y ago
  I think the problem with using Crystal in embedded systems is that there's no good way to turn off garbage collection.
Toutouxc 5y ago
There used to be this motto on their homepage that said "Fast as C, slick as Ruby", and I thought it really captured the spirit.

open-source-ux 5y ago

Crystal is a very nice language. It is strongly-typed and inspired by Ruby's syntax but not identical to Ruby. Crystal's performance is excellent, but compiling is a little slow. (And no Windows support yet - but under development.) Given these features, there does not appear to be much adoption of Crystal among Ruby developers. It is still early days for the language (post 1.0 release). Some questions for Ruby developers: - Have you taken a look at Crystal? - What is your impression of Crystal? - Are there any features that would make you use the language? (Or reasons for not using Crystal?)

zem 5y ago
I was interested in it as a possible language to write cross platform desktop apps in, since distributing end user apps with ruby is a pain, but the lack of windows support made that a non starter.
Toutouxc 5y ago
Crystal is currently my go-to language when I want to try something out, like a new algorithm, data structure or problem, and I want to write it in Ruby and have the Ruby kind of fun doing it, but I also want it to be fast and consistent (like in Ruby you can do N-sized input and in Crystal you can do N*10). I don't use it for work because I work for a Rails shop and we're currently happy with Rails.
Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
I've taken a look and it's interesting. The two downers for me were: - needless differences to Ruby: for example, the devs have refused to implement single-line if...then...end simply because they don't like it (https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/4117 https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/4117) - cryptic error messages, mostly type-related: this might have got better in subsequent releases, I guess.
- ksec 5y ago
  I dont understand the hatred for "then" even in Ruby [1]. I have seen a lot of students prefer to put the word "then" to make things easier for them. [1] https://github.com/rubocop/ruby-style-guide#no-then https://github.com/rubocop/ruby-style-guide#no-then

PostThisTooFast 5y ago

Whatever THAT is. Another title failure.

anonyfox 5y ago

I really like crystal (coming from ruby 10 years ago) and I still check it from time to time, but the number one showstopper for me using it more is that static linking is not possible like in Go or Rust. Just compile a binary from my Mac and send it over to peers or compile it within a Github Action/scp it to a plain new linux server/run it - a comfort I am not willing to give up. (No, docker stuff doesn't cut it)

ksec 5y ago
> but the number one showstopper for me using it more is that static linking is not possible like in Go or Rust. Which part [1] of it is not possible? [1] https://crystal-lang.org/reference/guides/static_linking.html https://crystal-lang.org/reference/guides/static_linking.htm...
nsotelo 5y ago
Not all shows need portability so why stop them all? Desktop applications absolutely, but It's trivial to build, deploy and operate docker containers on servers.