[Crystal](http://crystal-lang.org) is a statically typed, compiled programming language with [Ruby](/index.php/Ruby "Ruby") inspired syntax and global type inference.

## Contents

*   [1 Installation](#Installation)
*   [2 Usage](#Usage)
*   [3 Shards](#Shards)
*   [4 See also](#See_also)

## Installation

To install Crystal, [install](/index.php/Install "Install") [crystal](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=crystal). To install the latest development version install [crystal-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/crystal-git/).

## Usage

To compile and run a Crystal program:

```
 $ crystal hello_world.cr

```

To compile a Crystal program to a binary:

```
 $ crystal build hello_world.cr

```

To compile an optimized binary:

```
 $ crystal build --release hello_world.cr

```

For more options see:

```
 $ crystal help

```

## Shards

The dependency manager shards is also available in the repositories. To install it, [install](/index.php/Install "Install") [shards](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=shards). To install the latest development version install [shards-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/shards-git/).

## See also

*   [The official website](http://crystal-lang.org)
*   [The official documentation](http://crystal-lang.org/docs/)
*   [The standard library reference](http://crystal-lang.org/api/)
*   [The official Github repository](https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal)
*   [Online code evaluation](https://play.crystal-lang.org/#/cr)
*   [#crystal-lang IRC channel](http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#crystal-lang)