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Crystal: A Language for Humans and Computers

Serdar Doğruyol • May 25, 2018 • Sofia, Bulgaria

In the video titled "Crystal: A language for humans and computers," Serdar Doğruyol presents an introduction to the Crystal programming language at the Balkan Ruby 2018 event. The talk begins with Serdar sharing his experiences in Sofia, Bulgaria, and his background before diving into an overview of Crystal.

Key Points Discussed:
- Introduction to Crystal:
- Crystal is a programming language inspired by Ruby but distinct in its design and functionality, aimed at providing human-friendly syntax while also being efficient for computers.
- Misconceptions about Crystal:
- Clarifies that Crystal is not simply a Ruby implementation but a separate language with its own features.
- Developer Community:
- Emphasizes the importance of community and explains how Crystal emerged from collaboration and contributions from developers worldwide.
- Technical Highlights of Crystal:
- Strongly typed with type inference, enhancing developer productivity while allowing flexibility.
- Features such as union types allow for multiple possible types for variables, promoting cleaner and less cumbersome code.
- Built-in support for method overloading simplifies function management across different input types.
- Concurrency through fibers, making kernel-level threading easier and more efficient than traditional thread management.
- Produces single native executables optimized for each platform, creating a streamlined deployment process.
- Real-world Adoption and Performance:
- Crystal is used by over 30 companies across various sectors including web development, cybersecurity, and AI, demonstrating its practical application in high-stakes environments.
- Serdar shares a case study from his work at Rainforest, detailing significant performance improvements after migrating a service from Ruby to Crystal, showcasing faster response times and lower memory usage.
- Learning Resources:
- Encourages the audience to utilize available resources such as books and an active online community for novice and experienced developers alike.

Conclusions/Takeaways:
- Crystal strives to blend the user-friendliness of Ruby with the performance and efficiency needed for modern application development.
- With its growing community, advanced features, and successful adoption in production environments, Crystal represents a promising tool for developers seeking both simplicity and power in their coding practices. Serdar invites the audience to engage with the community, try out the language, and explore ongoing developments in Crystal programming.

Crystal: A Language for Humans and Computers
Serdar Doğruyol • May 25, 2018 • Sofia, Bulgaria

Rubyist, Crystal Evangelist, Creator of Kemal – a lightning fast, super simple web framework written in Crystal.

Balkan Ruby 2018

00:00:08.420 Thanks, everyone.
00:00:14.000 Hi again! It's my first time being in Sofia, and so far, it's been amazing.
00:00:20.760 The people, the places, the culture, especially the food, is wonderful.
00:00:26.160 I really like it here; it feels like I'm at home.
00:00:33.829 It's been a great journey for me.
00:00:39.899 I would like to thank everyone for organizing the first ever Balkan Ruby and inviting me.
00:00:44.910 Also, I'd like to thank you for coming to listen to us.
00:00:52.530 Today, I'm going to be talking about Crystal. As you can see from my t-shirt, I'm really excited about it, and I want to share my journey and experience with you.
00:01:07.470 So, do you know where I come from? This is Istanbul, and it's such a unique place.
00:01:14.640 I believe it's like the center of the world. You can debate about it, but it's the only place where you can cross continents on a daily basis with a bus.
00:01:22.170 This is the Bosporus bridge, which connects Europe with the Anatolian side.
00:01:27.600 For four years, I crossed continents, commuting about four hours a day.
00:01:33.900 I'm pretty sure most of you are familiar with Turkish cuisine. I learned that you have sarma, baklava, and kebabs.
00:01:48.030 One of my favorites is mantı. I'm not sure if you have it, but it's great.
00:01:55.500 So, I really enjoy food, and I want to welcome you all.
00:02:06.070 Also, my name is hard to pronounce. It’s Sardar Doğruyol, but you can call me Seto, which is a combination of the first two letters of my first and last name.
00:02:24.580 Most of my friends, my mother, and my brothers call me Seto, so please feel free to use it.
00:02:39.430 You can find me on GitHub, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Don't hesitate to reach out.
00:02:49.270 This picture captures one of the happiest moments of my life. I was presenting at RubyConf back in 2016.
00:02:57.610 I was even more fit in that picture!
00:03:03.400 I have recently joined the Crystal programming language team as a core member.
00:03:12.310 You can see me active on the issue tracker almost every day, so feel free to say hi.
00:03:18.760 I'm also the author of a framework called Kemal, a web framework written in Crystal.
00:03:24.100 It's inspired by Sinatra from the Ruby world, and I've maintained it for over three years.
00:03:30.970 Currently, I work at a startup called Rainforest, which is based in the U.S., but I work remotely from Istanbul.
00:03:39.070 We provide QA as a service, and you should check our website; it's pretty interesting.
00:03:49.390 I also enjoy learning languages and consider myself a polyglot.
00:03:55.709 I believe some of you can read Japanese, as this word, 'polyglot', is written in Japanese.
00:04:05.950 Learning languages is fun, but enough about me; let's talk about Crystal.
00:04:12.190 How many of you have heard of Crystal before? Wow, that's good! It seems we are doing a good job.
00:04:21.440 First things first: Crystal is not Ruby, and that is certain.
00:04:29.360 It’s not a type of Ruby; it’s a different language, but it takes many idioms and ideas from Ruby.
00:04:34.610 This is because Ruby is an awesome language.
00:04:42.020 In the past, we branded Crystal as fast as Ruby, but that turned out to lead people in the wrong direction.
00:04:49.160 People thought it was just another implementation, like MRI or JRuby.
00:04:54.290 However, Crystal is not just another implementation; it is a different language built from the ground up.
00:04:59.480 We now call it 'a language for humans and computers,' which is unique.
00:05:11.150 There aren’t many languages that share this attribute.
00:05:17.170 You might be asking why. I have some strong proof.
00:05:23.740 How many of you have seen this graph? This graph explains everything scientifically.
00:05:30.490 The developer satisfaction in Ruby is declining.
00:05:41.270 Sorry for the poor quality of the image; it’s generated by a Ruby program. Just kidding! Check the website 'Ruby is Dead' to see more of this.
00:05:49.580 I can assure you, Ruby is alive and kicking.
00:05:54.950 But the real question is why.
00:06:01.370 Building a language is more than just writing code, building compilers, and other technical aspects.
00:06:10.040 It's really about community and the people involved.
00:06:16.940 When we look at Crystal, there are main reasons why it stands out.
00:06:22.610 First and foremost, we are here because of Ruby's efficiency.
00:06:29.300 Ruby gives us a lot of productivity, and we want something similar.
00:06:36.409 We love efficiency, and we want the best of both worlds.
00:06:49.069 We want the compiler to understand what we mean without having to specify everything in detail.
00:06:57.680 Type systems are valuable; we wish to avoid the pitfalls of too much boilerplate.
00:07:06.439 We value DRY principles, especially in mathematics.
00:07:14.000 The last thing is that we don't want to write C code to make things faster.
00:07:22.879 So, how is this possible? The good thing is that Crystal is real.
00:07:29.029 It's not just a toy project; it’s being used in production by companies.
00:07:36.379 So how is it functioning? The simple answer is that it's built on ideas from Ruby while using LLVM.
00:07:41.870 For those unfamiliar, LLVM is a compiler infrastructure toolchain that many languages, such as Swift and Objective-C, utilize.
00:07:56.750 It is a solid project, backed by corporations like Apple and Google.
00:08:03.580 The original creators of Crystal thought about taking Ruby and making it work.
00:08:11.719 It sounds crazy, but I love this idea.
00:08:17.509 They believed that all our dreams could come true if we had the courage to pursue them.
00:08:24.169 It's mainly attributed to two guys from Argentina who had the visionary idea of creating Crystal.
00:08:30.420 Crystal doesn’t have any big corporation backing; it’s just a community effort.
00:08:35.610 In fact, six years ago, a brilliant and friendly individual named Ary committed the first initial commit on September 5, 2012.
00:08:50.280 You can consider Crystal a young language, but it has matured significantly in its short life.
00:09:03.090 One year later, the first version of Crystal was released, and it was initially written in Ruby.
00:09:08.310 Ary had a fondness for Ruby, and you could see that the project was heavily based on it.
00:09:15.570 Eventually, Crystal became self-hosted.
00:09:23.460 Self-hosted languages are written in their own language, which means Crystal is capable of writing and compiling its own code.
00:09:34.200 As seen from the master branch, about ninety-eight percent of Crystal's codebase is written in Crystal.
00:09:40.750 This allows Crystal to give you the ability to read its source code, which is fantastic.
00:09:46.340 I loved Ruby and wanted to contribute, but learning C extensions was quite challenging.
00:09:53.490 Therefore, I preferred a self-hosted language instead.
00:10:01.710 In April 2015, I was looking for something new that had the best of both worlds.
00:10:07.710 I discovered Crystal, and it truly changed my life.
00:10:13.329 It felt like I had found my calling.
00:10:21.420 Fast forward to today, it's been more than three years since I joined the community.
00:10:27.370 We are significantly more established as a programming language now.
00:10:32.470 Let's take a look at some statistics.
00:10:39.519 We have over 250 contributors from all around the world.
00:10:44.949 We have more than 10,000 stars on GitHub and over 2,500 packages.
00:10:53.540 As of now, it is actually more than 3,000 packages.
00:11:01.110 We rely on community donations and have raised over $2,000 per month.
00:11:06.750 We're grateful to everyone who contributed.
00:11:14.220 This year, we've seen tremendous growth.
00:11:21.060 Lastly, we have a core developer working on Crystal full-time.
00:11:27.990 It's fantastic that we now have sponsorship to support our developer.
00:11:34.110 We have an exciting new release coming next week, version 0.25.
00:11:39.120 We have optimized many features, and I hope we can successfully release it soon.
00:11:46.340 Now, you might be wondering what makes Crystal stand out.
00:11:53.270 I'll give you an overview, but I'm not going to delve too deeply.
00:11:59.320 First and foremost, it's human-friendly.
00:12:04.950 Drawing inspiration from Ruby, which is considered one of the most human-friendly languages, Crystal seeks to emulate that.
00:12:11.750 For instance, this simple statement prints 'Hello,' which is very approachable.
00:12:19.540 Similarly, this line represents a complete HTTP server written in just five lines of code.
00:12:26.560 This simplicity makes it easy to use.
00:12:29.390 Moreover, Crystal features a powerful type system. It is strongly typed, unlike Ruby.
00:12:39.200 Narratively, the type system looks familiar because you don't need to specify types explicitly at most times.
00:12:46.500 The compiler is intelligent enough to infer types and optimize them.
00:12:54.920 You can also check the types at compile time through methods.
00:13:00.790 Crystal offers a range of numeric types, including integers and floats, and we are currently implementing 128-bit integers.
00:13:07.300 The array types also offer flexibility, allowing for a combination of various data types.
00:13:14.180 This feature gives it a dynamic language feel, permitting a great deal of simplicity.
00:13:21.030 One of Crystal's greatest features is Union types.
00:13:29.409 They have been described as the missing piece in many compiled languages.
00:13:32.879 For example, consider this expression: if one plus two equals three, then one else a equals 'hello.'
00:13:40.039 The compiler must output all possible types, so utilizing Union types solves such problems.
00:13:47.880 Like this, the type can be expressed as an integer or string.
00:13:56.000 This is quite flexible since you can use as many variants as you want.
00:14:04.050 The compiler optimizes the data types for better performance.
00:14:11.370 If you look at runtime values, it's still just an integer.
00:14:17.150 Another feature I really like is method overloading.
00:14:21.720 How many of you have used method overloading in any language?
00:14:27.600 It's quite useful, especially for making code cleaner.
00:14:34.620 In Ruby, we often face cumbersome management of multiple types.
00:14:37.200 In Crystal, you can define overloaded methods clearly with differentiating type signatures.
00:14:45.340 You can specify the return type after a colon, allowing flexibility in its use.
00:14:52.420 The compiler ensures that you call the appropriate method matching your types.
00:14:59.600 If a type doesn’t fit the overloads, you won’t compile, meaning you handle errors more easily.
00:15:06.160 Next, let's address reference checks.
00:15:13.540 Many of us experience difficulties with nil handling in Ruby.
00:15:20.870 In Crystal, the compiler ensures that you correctly handle potential nil cases.
00:15:28.260 For example, if an expression can yield a nil value, the compiler will flag that potential issue.
00:15:37.020 This prevents undefined method exceptions by verifying types at compile time.
00:15:45.170 Adopting macro-based metaprogramming further values performance.
00:15:50.390 Macros are processed at compile time, eliminating performance penalties.
00:15:57.139 Unlike Ruby, you get to define methods dynamically without runtime performance hits.
00:16:05.050 The cool thing about this approach is that if there's a problem with your syntax at compile time, the compiler will let you know.
00:16:14.140 Now, let's talk about open classes.
00:16:22.340 Some developers love monkey-patching… and others loathe it.
00:16:29.930 The point is, Crystal allows you to reopen a class and define methods similar to Ruby's behavior.
00:16:36.690 No performance is lost on that front either.
00:16:41.679 Built-in concurrency is another noteworthy feature of Crystal.
00:16:48.240 Crystal utilizes fibers, which are lightweight threads inspired by ideas from Go and Closure.
00:16:55.190 Being cooperative and utilizing message passing, it avoids shared memory issues.
00:17:01.520 This model follows the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) paradigm.
00:17:09.010 Let me show you how it operates with a simple concurrency example using fibers.
00:17:15.960 It is implemented with channels to send messages between them.
00:17:22.250 You can pass values and receive them back using channel receive.
00:17:29.920 The operations are blocking, ensuring data consistency.
00:17:36.480 Currently, Crystal is not multi-threaded but leverages an event loop, making it exceptionally fast.
00:17:44.300 Now let's discuss native code.
00:17:51.170 When you use Crystal, it produces a single native executable tailored for your platform.
00:17:58.020 It can create an ELF for Linux, a Mach-O for macOS, or a compatible executable for Windows.
00:18:05.940 You can simply use Crystal build to create a standalone binary.
00:18:12.210 But the Windows port is still under development.
00:18:17.270 The community is welcome to contribute in aid of this port.
00:18:23.040 Additionally, we have C bindings that make it easy to use C libraries.
00:18:30.260 This means you don’t have to write extensive C code to interface with C libraries.
00:18:37.270 Here’s a simple binding from Crystal to the LibGMP library.
00:18:43.640 You can leverage the 'lib' keyword and access its methods easily.
00:18:50.770 Creating bindings is straightforward and quick, as demonstrated by my friend's PostgreSQL binding.
00:18:57.740 Now, when it comes to testing, we do have high hopes.
00:19:05.200 Crystal has a built-in testing framework called Spec.
00:19:12.670 It's akin to RSpec, though more straightforward.
00:19:19.080 You would work with describe blocks but without the added context.
00:19:25.180 You can write tests directly in Crystal's source, enabling clear visibility.
00:19:30.150 To add dependencies, we use 'shards.'
00:19:36.270 When you create a new project, the command generates a shards.yml for package management.
00:19:42.920 It fetches dependencies directly from sources like GitHub.
00:19:48.500 The crystal shards XY is an excellent place to find and explore available packages.
00:19:55.260 And today, we already have over 3,000 up-to-date shards.
00:20:02.750 It's steadily increasing, showcasing our active community.
00:20:10.490 Some features bring a visual pleasure similar to what Ruby offers.
00:20:19.030 Crystal Play, an interactive playground for experimentation, comes built-in.
00:20:26.590 Once installed, just utilize 'crystal play' and have fun!
00:20:35.310 I wish to demonstrate it here, but unfortunately, my PC is having issues.
00:20:42.250 The overall development experience is enhanced with built-in formatting tools.
00:20:48.980 Whenever you save a file in the editor, it formats automatically.
00:20:55.840 It's a feature I truly admire and wish Ruby had.
00:21:04.090 And in Crystal, we maintain coding standards by using double quotes exclusively.
00:21:11.450 Furthermore, it reads like English; there are no odd inclusions as seen in Ruby.
00:21:19.540 By avoiding global variables, we ensure better data integrity.
00:21:27.680 Last year we made a conscious decision to remove global variables from our codebase.
00:21:34.600 Instead, we now rely on classes and static variables.
00:21:41.250 Now, you may wonder if anyone actually uses Crystal in production.
00:21:51.140 No surprise! Many companies actively use Crystal.
00:21:58.300 This is rapidly increasing; we have over 30 companies using it as we speak.
00:22:05.150 Crystal is applied in various sectors, not just the web domain.
00:22:11.830 Cybersecurity and AI companies are also adopting Crystal.
00:22:20.760 For example, a startup called Deploys uses it for DNA analysis.
00:22:29.920 They transitioned from Ruby and reported a tenfold speed improvement in Crystal.
00:22:39.000 Imagine real-world cancer patients benefiting from Crystal code! That's incredible!
00:22:48.740 Regarding performance, I opted to showcase real use cases instead of benchmarks.
00:22:55.790 In my current role at Rainforest, we looked at several projects to improve them.
00:23:03.040 We had one service that was critical and operated with a 700 ms 99 percentile response time, and I rewrote it in Kemal.
00:23:11.600 Now, our response time is down to 50 ms on average.
00:23:22.470 The graphs reflect performance gains and drastically reduced memory consumption.
00:23:31.340 While it previously averaged around 100 MB with Ruby, it now operates at a mere 2 to 3 MB.
00:23:39.150 The garbage collector also performs quite well.
00:23:44.780 Featuring a lightweight framework like Kemal positions Crystal competitively.
00:23:51.440 Looking at benchmarks from TechEmpower, Crystal is comparable to languages such as Go and Lua.
00:23:58.050 Despite being single-threaded, its fibers are impressively efficient.
00:24:04.650 The results are promising, indicating a bright future.
00:24:10.210 Now, for those seeking resources, we offer several.
00:24:19.000 We have a comprehensive Crystal book available on GitHub.
00:24:27.700 Additionally, I wrote a guide titled 'Crystal for Rubies,' which offers a quick, free read.
00:24:34.990 It distills major concepts and is available in PDF and Kindle formats.
00:24:42.450 We also have an active community channel where you can engage.
00:24:51.480 There are over 500 participants currently, and it's a growing resource.
00:24:57.630 I have stickers here for anyone interested!
00:25:02.860 On a related note, I'm writing a book called 'Learning Crystal Programming.'
00:25:08.700 Though still in progress, I hope to finish it soon.
00:25:15.040 Writing a book is undoubtedly a challenge.
00:25:23.760 Thank you for listening, and feel free to ask any questions!
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