Imagining the future of Crystal together in Stockholm
On February 17-18, 2025, we had the pleasure to gather in Stockholm for a two-day workshop with 84codes, our main sponsor and long-time supporter. These days were filled with deep technical discussions, forward-looking strategy sessions, and a shared commitment to the future of Crystal. We also co-hosted a public meetup to engage with the local and international Crystal community.
A Workshop Focused on the Future
Our time at 84codes HQ was dedicated to exploring the present and future of Crystal. We kicked off with presentations from both teams, sharing our visions, challenges, and experiences using Crystal in production. This set the stage for an engaging discussion on topics including:
- Multi-threading and concurrency
- Garbage collection
- Developer experience and tooling
- Incremental compilation
- Windows support
- Community growth and user adoption
- Marketing strategies
These topics are likely nothing new to you if are an active member of the Crystal community, but being a remote first team means we have precious few opportunities to discuss them at length in person.
One of the key takeaways from our discussions was how aligned we are with the broader vision for Crystal. Rather than worrying about specific features, the conversation revolved around current challenges and opportunities in each of those areas. This reaffirmed our shared commitment to building Crystal for long-term success.
We are working on a summary of the state of all these topics for a future post, so stay tuned!
A Meetup Full of Energy
On the evening of the 18th, we co-hosted a public Crystal meetup, where Beta Ziliani (Crystal team lead) and Carl Hörberg (84codes’ founder) delivered interesting and complementary talks.
Beta used a zoo metaphor to try to explain where we see Crystal fit in the programming language space. Is it more akin to Java, Ruby, Go or Rust? What makes it unique?
Carl showed us how 84codes leverages Crystal to build high performance and low-resource queue systems, highlighting Crystal’s flexibility and gentle learning curve while not relinquishing power: you can start coding your program at a high level like you do in Ruby, but it still gives you tools to go deep down the rabbit hole as you need to get more and more in control of your stack. This includes the sometimes overlooked advantages of having an FOSS standard library completely written in the same language you are programming your app in, paired with the ability to monkey patch it to customize it to your needs.
Around 30 attendees joined, ranging from seasoned Crystal developers to newcomers intrigued by the language’s potential. It was inspiring to see firsthand the growing interest and enthusiasm for Crystal.
You can check out more pictures of the event at 84code’s own recap of it.
Looking Ahead
We returned home with our notebooks brimming with ideas, ready to translate them into actionable improvements. The discussions and insights from this workshop are invaluable to help us shape the next steps for Crystal’s evolution, and we’ll be reaching out to the community to refine and implement them.
A heartfelt thank you to 84codes for their unwavering support, hospitality, and shared vision. This meetup strengthened our collaboration and reinforced our motivation to push Crystal forward.
Stay tuned for more updates as we work on putting these discussions into action. And if you’re interested in joining the conversation, keep an eye out on our community channels!.