You get more and better libraries if the language is popular. Your favorite APIs (such as AWS for example) implement clients in the language

I wonder if the lack of libraries in a new language is just a few ChatGPT-integrations away. After all, Crystal is so similar to Ruby. I bet as soon as context/environment aware ChatGPT tools/agents that can compile / run tests / apply fixes until it works are available, this will become the reality: "Create this Ruby library but for Crystal" and in a few hours you can include it in your Crystal project.

I would personally never use a chatgpt transliterated library

The FFI wrapper for c libraries is great, and one can use imagemagick and pngquant and such via an IO buffer wrapping a call to a command.

Crystal works great TODAY and will blow Ruby out of the water on performance. I simply can’t justify RoR in 2023 given Crystal

More, of course. But better? Percentage-wise, unlikely.

Maybe not if you consider good as a threshold, but the quality of good libraries will improve with a larger pool of skilled contributors

The more people use it, the more jobs there will be for it, and the more the ecosystem will flourish.

While it may be possible to onboard Ruby developers fairly easy, it is still easier to find talent for an „established“ language. For my personal projects, I gladly use Crystal, but in my professional role as a technical decision maker I need to factor aspects like this in.