How to Read This Book

It’s best to read the book from start to finish. But if you know that you want to learn Crystal and you want to get moving quickly:

• Set up Crystal and choose an editor, or use the Playground: see ​Installing Crystal on Your Machine​ and ​Working with Crystal Playground​.

• Work through the tutorial in Chapter 2.

• Part II should give you most of what you need to code in Crystal.

• You can skim Part III, looking for features that seem especially relevant to your needs, or come back to Chapter 1 to read some Crystal motivations.

• Or read an inspiring company story at the end of each chapter.

Throughout the book, you can follow along by executing and otherwise experimenting with the snippets in the code files accompanying each chapter (see code/chapter_name). You’ll find all the code shown in the book in the accompanying code files.

Practice is the best way to learn a new language, so in every chapter you’ll find “Your Turn” exercises where you can try out your new skills and explore different ways of solving problems. When you’re finished with each exercise, you’ll find example solutions in the appendix and the code download.