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Crystal

A statically typed, compiled language with Ruby-like syntax.

Crystal looks and feels like Ruby — same block syntax, similar standard library names, similar metaprogramming flavour — but compiles to native code via LLVM and uses static type inference rather than dynamic typing. The result is a language that is comfortable for Ruby developers but produces fast, single-binary deliverables more typical of Go or Rust.

Manas Technology Solutions started Crystal in 2014 in Argentina. The project hit 1.0 in 2021, which stabilised the language and standard library; minor releases continue to land regularly. Compilation times are slower than Go's because of the type- inference work, but the resulting binaries are competitively fast and small.

Crystal has a small but engaged user base. It is most popular for command-line tools and back-end services where Ruby's performance ceiling has been hit but rewriting in Rust or Go would mean abandoning Ruby's ergonomics. The Lucky web framework is the most prominent Crystal web framework.

Debian/Ubuntu: see https://crystal-lang.org/install/
Arch:          sudo pacman -S crystal
macOS:         brew install crystal