# Know Ruby? Enter Crystal! [Crystal](http://crystal-lang.org/) programming language is super interesting. I've spent the time checking out Crystal and digging through what is available, and wrote it all down as I learned. #### Frequently Asked Questions **Who are you?** I'm [**Serdar Dogruyol**](https://github.com/sdogruyol), and I've been a Crystalist for years now. I'm the author of [Kemal](http://kemalcr.com/), curator of [Crystal Weekly](http://www.crystalweekly.com/) and a [Crystal Core Member](https://github.com/orgs/crystal-lang/people). I love new programming languages, and while I've been using Ruby for the past years, I've coded in Java, PHP, Crystal, Elixir and a host of others. I also love writing, and good documentation, which is hard to find. Crystal doesn't have a lot of that yet, so I'm pitching in! **Why Crystal?** I've written [a blog post](http://serdardogruyol.com/why-crystal) dedicated to this, but basically, Crystal is good at everything Ruby is not good at...plus as a Rubyist you already know some Crystal. **What am I getting?** Basically, you can read the whole thing online for free! **Do I have to know Ruby?** Really, I love alliteration: the only thing the **'for Rubyists'** really means is that I assume you don't know about types, pointers, concurrency, or similar things. That's okay, you've never had to think about them before! I explain this stuff in extra depth. If you program in another dynamically typed language, you'll be just fine. If you program in another typed language, you'll be more than fine. **Where can I find some Crystal Libraries (Shards)?** * [awesome-crystal](https://github.com/veelenga/awesome-crystal) has a curated list of Crystal shards. * [crystalshards.org](https://crystalshards.org/) lists all of the available Crystal shards on GitHub (similar to rubygems.org) * [Here is a list of some popular Ruby gems that have been ported to Crystal](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/wiki/Crystal-Shards-for-Ruby-Gems). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.crystalforrubyists.com/readme.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.