Crystal vs TypeScript

Overview

TypeScript

Stacks105.1K

Followers74.2K

Votes503

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

Crystal

Stacks341

Followers350

Votes286

GitHub Stars20.0K

Forks1.7K

Crystal vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Introduction: Here are some key differences between Crystal and TypeScript:

Syntax: Crystal has a Ruby-like syntax, making it more readable and expressive. In contrast, TypeScript has a syntax similar to JavaScript, but with added static typing capabilities for increased robustness and error checking.
Concurrency: Crystal has built-in support for fibers, allowing for lightweight concurrency that is more efficient than traditional threads. On the other hand, TypeScript relies on JavaScript's event loop for managing concurrency, which may not be as performant for certain use cases.
Compilation: Crystal is compiled directly to machine code, resulting in highly optimized and efficient executables. In contrast, TypeScript is compiled to JavaScript, which can introduce some performance overhead due to the inherent dynamic nature of JavaScript.
Typing System: Crystal has a strong and static type system that is enforced at compile time, helping to prevent runtime errors and improving code quality. While TypeScript also has a static type system, it allows for more flexibility with optional typing and type inference.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript has a larger and more mature ecosystem with a wide range of libraries and tools available for web development. On the other hand, Crystal has a smaller community and ecosystem, which may limit the resources and support available for developers.
Tooling: TypeScript has robust tooling support with features like code completion, refactoring, and debugging in popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code. Crystal, on the other hand, may have limited tooling options available, potentially affecting developer productivity and ease of use.

In Summary, Crystal and TypeScript differ in syntax, concurrency support, compilation output, typing system, community size, and tooling availability.

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Advice on TypeScript, Crystal

Peter

May 17, 2019

Reviewon

TypeScript

I use TypeScript because:

incredible developer tooling and community support
actively developed and supported by Microsoft (yes, I like Microsoft) ;)
easier to make sense of a TS codebase because the annotations provide so much more context than plain JS
refactors become easier (VSCode has superb support for TS)

I've switched back and forth between TS and Flow and decided a year ago to abandon Flow completely in favor of TS. I don't want to bash Flow, however, my main grievances are very poor tooling (editor integration leaves much to be desired), a slower release cycle, and subpar docs and community support.

135k views135k

Comments

Jarvis

May 16, 2019

Reviewon

TypeScript

Flow (JS)

I use TypeScript because it isn't just about validating the types I'm expecting to receive though that is a huge part of it too. Flow (JS) seems to be a type system only. TypeScript also allows you to use the latest features of JavaScript while also providing the type checking. To be fair to Flow (JS), I have not used it, but likely wouldn't have due to the additional features I get from TypeScript.

168k views168k

Comments

David

VP Engineering at Trolley

May 16, 2019

Reviewon

JavaScript

Flow (JS)

TypeScript

We originally (in 2017) started rewriting our platform from JavaScript to Flow (JS) but found the library support for Flow was lacking. After switching gears to TypeScript we've never looked back. At this point we're finding that frontend and backend libraries are supporting TypeScript out of the box and where the support is missing that the commuity is typically got a solution in hand.

173k views173k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

TypeScript	Crystal
TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.	Crystal is a programming language that resembles Ruby but compiles to native code and tries to be much more efficient, at the cost of disallowing certain dynamic aspects of Ruby.
-	Ruby-inspired syntax.;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.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 106.6K	GitHub Stars 20.0K
GitHub Forks 13.1K	GitHub Forks 1.7K
Stacks 105.1K	Stacks 341
Followers 74.2K	Followers 350
Votes 503	Votes 286
Pros & Cons
Pros 173 More intuitive and type safe javascript 105 Type safe 80 JavaScript superset 48 The best AltJS ever 27 Best AltJS for BackEnd Cons 5 Code may look heavy and confusing 4 Hype	Pros 38 Compiles to efficient native code 36 Ruby inspired syntax 32 Performance oriented - C-like speeds 23 Gem-like packages, called Shards 20 Can call C code using Crystal bindings Cons 13 Small community 3 No windows support 1 No Oracle lib

What are some alternatives to TypeScript, Crystal?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

Crystal vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Introduction: Here are some key differences between Crystal and TypeScript:

Syntax: Crystal has a Ruby-like syntax, making it more readable and expressive. In contrast, TypeScript has a syntax similar to JavaScript, but with added static typing capabilities for increased robustness and error checking.
Concurrency: Crystal has built-in support for fibers, allowing for lightweight concurrency that is more efficient than traditional threads. On the other hand, TypeScript relies on JavaScript's event loop for managing concurrency, which may not be as performant for certain use cases.
Compilation: Crystal is compiled directly to machine code, resulting in highly optimized and efficient executables. In contrast, TypeScript is compiled to JavaScript, which can introduce some performance overhead due to the inherent dynamic nature of JavaScript.
Typing System: Crystal has a strong and static type system that is enforced at compile time, helping to prevent runtime errors and improving code quality. While TypeScript also has a static type system, it allows for more flexibility with optional typing and type inference.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript has a larger and more mature ecosystem with a wide range of libraries and tools available for web development. On the other hand, Crystal has a smaller community and ecosystem, which may limit the resources and support available for developers.
Tooling: TypeScript has robust tooling support with features like code completion, refactoring, and debugging in popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code. Crystal, on the other hand, may have limited tooling options available, potentially affecting developer productivity and ease of use.

In Summary, Crystal and TypeScript differ in syntax, concurrency support, compilation output, typing system, community size, and tooling availability.

Crystal vs TypeScript

Overview