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C++ vs Crystal: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Memory Management**: One key difference between C++ and Crystal is the manual memory management in C++ compared to the automatic memory management in Crystal. In C++, developers need to handle memory allocation and deallocation explicitly using functions like new and delete, while Crystal handles memory management automatically with its built-in garbage collector.

2. **Type System**: Another difference is in the type system used by C++ and Crystal. C++ is a statically typed language, where data types are explicitly declared at compile time and strict type checking is enforced. On the other hand, Crystal is a statically and strongly typed language, offering type inference to reduce the need for explicit type declarations while still providing strong type safety at compile time.

3. **Concurrency**: C++ and Crystal also differ in their approaches to concurrency. In C++, developers typically use multi-threading with libraries like pthreads to achieve parallelism, which can lead to complex synchronization issues. Crystal, on the other hand, uses lightweight green threads managed by the language runtime, providing easier and safer concurrency with minimal developer intervention.

4. **Syntax and Expressiveness**: In terms of syntax and expressiveness, C++ and Crystal exhibit differences as well. C++ has a more verbose syntax with complex features like pointers and manual memory management that can lead to code clutter and potential bugs. Crystal, on the other hand, features a more concise and expressive syntax with modern language constructs that make writing code more readable and maintainable.

5. **Error Handling**: Another significant difference between C++ and Crystal is in their error handling mechanisms. C++ relies on exceptions for error handling, which can lead to overhead and performance implications if not used carefully. In contrast, Crystal uses a combination of return values and built-in error types for error handling, leading to more predictable and efficient error management in the codebase.

6. **Community and Ecosystem**: The final key difference lies in the community and ecosystem surrounding C++ and Crystal. C++ has a long-established community and extensive ecosystem with a plethora of libraries and tools available for developers. Crystal, being a newer language, has a smaller but growing community with a more focused ecosystem, offering modern web development tools and frameworks for building scalable applications.

In Summary, C++ and Crystal differ in terms of memory management, type system, concurrency, syntax and expressiveness, error handling, and community ecosystem.
Advice on C++ and Crystal
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C++C++JavaScriptJavaScript
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PythonPython

Hi, I'm just starting to learn code, and I stumbled upon this website. I think I should learn JavaScript, Python, and C++ to begin with. I'm a quick learner so I am only worried about what would be more useful. Suppose my goal is to build an online clothing store or something. Then what languages would be best? I need advice. Please help me out. I'm 13 and just beginning and it's hard to understand when people use technical terms so please keep it simple. Thanks a lot.

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Replies (8)
Taimoor Mirza
Associate Software Engineer at Intech Process Automation · | 21 upvotes · 256K views
Recommends
on
PythonPython

Go with Python. It's syntax is really simple and less verbose compare to others. You can use Python for basically anything like web dev, task automation, data science, data engineering, cybersecurity etc. At initial level, it's more important to get an understanding of programming fundamentals. Once you get conformable with coding in general, then you can explore other languages.

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I would worry less about languages when you're first starting out. If you want to build an online store, then javascript is a great language that is used all over the web! Get comfortable with your first language, learn some computer science concepts and how to build things the right way, and then just work towards a goal and learn as you go!

https://www.w3schools.com/ is a great resource and it's completely free, everything you need to know to build a website is on that page if you have the drive to learn it. Best of luck to you!

Here's a neat roadmap too, in case you find yourself lost on what to learn next https://roadmap.sh/frontend

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Recommends
on
JavaScriptJavaScript

I recommend JavaScript to build your first website, for both FrontEnd and BackEnd , even tho I am a BIG fan of C++ it is not well suited yet to create websites, and Python would be just as good for the BackEnd as JavaScript but having everything written in only one language will make your learning curve way easier, so it is easy to recommend JavaScript.

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Mukesh Gurpude
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on
JavaScriptJavaScriptPythonPython

Python is an easy and beginner-friendly language. As you've mentioned about Online Clothing store, you'll need to deal with the website part and you'll need Javascript to make the site accessible and functional. Javascript will be more easy to learn if you learn Python first, so you can just start with Python.

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on
FlaskFlaskPythonPython

Hello Rachel, as a fellow programmer, I am glad that you are planning on expanding your coding knowledge and skills.

I recommend learning python first as it has a very simple syntax (syntax is how your code looks and how simple it is to type) and is also very user-friendly. Once you get to know how to code in python, you can use this thing called Flask.

Flask is what you call a "web application framework" or a WAF, it basically is a tool used to develop websites and other similar things. You don't have to worry much about it's difficulty because it is based on python. You will still have to learn how to use Flask though as it could be a bit complicating in first glance.

If you are looking for simpler ways for making website without having to learn a lot of programming, you can learn HTML and CSS. These 2 will help you in making a basic and functional website. The catch is, from a career perspective, HTML won't get you far, as literally every programmer knows it. So it is best to use programming languages.

I hope this gave you a clear understanding of the ways in which you can build websites. Wishing you the best of luck!

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JavaScriptJavaScript

I have worked with all these a ton. I make ecommerce and enterprise apps now. The only one of these you need is JavaScript. You can use JS on the backend as Node.js in AWS Lambda. You will need HTML and CSS skills, as well as a database. I recommend MongoDB. Please forget about C++ until you built your first company. Python fits the same purpose as Node.js but is currently popular in the Data Science community so skip it until you have a LOT of customers.

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John Akhilomen
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on
JavaScriptJavaScriptPythonPython

Since you're new, I'd recommend Javascript and Python. With Javascript, just learn React and Node. And with Python, learn Django. With JavaScript, Node, React, Python, and Django; you can accomplish quite a lot for both frontend and backend.

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Recommends
on
WordPressWordPress

Hi, When saying that "Suppose my goal is to build an online clothing store or something", I would go for a ready to use platform like Wordpress. it will give you a fast jump into the online world. By using WP you'll have to catch on with PHP\JQuery Goodluck.. Ping me when store is ready, I might buy something....

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Decisions about C++ and Crystal

Python has become the most popular language for machine learning right now since almost all machine learning tools provide service for this language, and it is really to use since it has many build-in objects like Hashtable. In C, you need to implement everything by yourself.

C++ is one of the most popular programming languages in graphics. It has many fancy libraries like eigen to help us process matrix. I have many previous projects about graphics based on C++ and this time, we also need to deal with graphics since we need to analyze movements of the human body. C++ has much more advantages than Java. C++ uses only compiler, whereas Java uses compiler and interpreter in both. C++ supports both operator overloading and method overloading whereas Java only supports method overloading. C++ supports manual object management with the help of new and delete keywords whereas Java has built-in automatic garbage collection.

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Russtopia Labs
Sr. Doodad Imagineer at Russtopia Labs · | 0 upvote · 224.4K views

As a personal research project I wanted to add post-quantum crypto KEM (key encapsulation) algorithms and new symmetric crypto session algorithms to openssh. I found the openssh code and its channel/context management extremely complex.

Concurrently, I was learning Go. It occurred to me that Go's excellent standard library, including crypto libraries, plus its much safer memory model and string/buffer handling would be better suited to a secure remote shell solution. So I started from scratch, writing a clean-room Go-based solution, without regard for ssh compatibility. Interactive and token-based login, secure copy and tunnels.

Of course, it needs a proper security audit for side channel attacks, protocol vulnerabilities and so on -- but I was impressed by how much simpler a client-server application with crypto and complex terminal handling was in Go.

$ sloc openssh-portable 
  Languages  Files    Code  Comment  Blank   Total  CodeLns
      Total    502  112982    14327  15705  143014   100.0%
          C    389  105938    13349  14416  133703    93.5%
      Shell     92    6118      937   1129    8184     5.7%
       Make     16     468       37    131     636     0.4%
        AWK      1     363        0      7     370     0.3%
        C++      3      79        4     18     101     0.1%
       Conf      1      16        0      4      20     0.0%
$ sloc xs
  Languages  Files  Code  Comment  Blank  Total  CodeLns
      Total     34  3658     1231    655   5544   100.0%
         Go     19  3230     1199    507   4936    89.0%
   Markdown      2   181        0     76    257     4.6%
       Make      7   148        4     50    202     3.6%
       YAML      1    39        0      5     44     0.8%
       Text      1    30        0      7     37     0.7%
     Modula      1    16        0      2     18     0.3%
      Shell      3    14       28      8     50     0.9%

https://gogs.blitter.com/RLabs/xs

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Pros of C++
Pros of Crystal
  • 203
    Performance
  • 108
    Control over memory allocation
  • 99
    Cross-platform
  • 98
    Fast
  • 85
    Object oriented
  • 59
    Industry standard
  • 48
    Smart pointers
  • 38
    Templates
  • 17
    Gui toolkits
  • 17
    Raii
  • 14
    Flexibility
  • 14
    Generic programming
  • 14
    Control
  • 12
    Metaprogramming
  • 10
    Hardcore
  • 5
    Full-fledged containers/collections API
  • 5
    Many large libraries
  • 5
    Simple
  • 4
    Large number of Libraries
  • 4
    Performant multi-paradigm language
  • 3
    Way too complicated
  • 1
    Close to Reality
  • 1
    Plenty of useful features
  • 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
  • 18
    Super Fast
  • 18
    Typed Ruby <3
  • 17
    Open Source
  • 14
    Minimal Runtime
  • 11
    Cute
  • 9
    Clean code
  • 9
    Concurrent
  • 9
    Productive
  • 4
    Great community
  • 2
    Powerful
  • 2
    Program compiled into a single binary
  • 2
    Simplicity
  • 2
    Meta-Programming (via Macros)
  • 2
    Feels like duck types, safe like static types
  • 2
    Null Safety
  • 2
    Type inference
  • 1
    Has builtin LLVM support library
  • 1
    Statically linked binaries that are simple to deploy
  • 1
    Fun to write
  • 1
    High-performance
  • 1
    Simple, minimal syntax
  • 1
    Compile time statically safe macros
  • 1
    Concise
  • 1
    Statically Safe Monkey Patching
  • 1
    Fibers
  • 1
    Spawn
  • 1
    Meta-programming
  • 1
    Productivity
  • 1
    Elegant
  • 1
    Cross-platform

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Cons of C++
Cons of Crystal
  • 8
    Slow compilation
  • 8
    Unsafe
  • 6
    Over-complicated
  • 6
    Fragile ABI
  • 5
    No standard/mainstream dependency management
  • 4
    Templates mess with compilation units
  • 3
    Too low level for most tasks
  • 1
    Compile time features are a mess
  • 1
    Template metaprogramming is insane
  • 1
    Segfaults
  • 1
    Unreal engine
  • 13
    Small community
  • 3
    No windows support
  • 1
    No Oracle lib

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What is C++?

C++ compiles directly to a machine's native code, allowing it to be one of the fastest languages in the world, if optimized.

What is Crystal?

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.

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