We are releasing the second patch release of the 1.7 series.
Pre-built packages are available on GitHub Releases and our official distribution channels. See crystal-lang.org/install for installation instructions.
This patch includes two bugfixes for regressions introduced in 1.7.0 and a minor UX bug in the compiler.
The first regression affected the parser, which in 1.7.0 was modified to restrict the set of tokens that can be placed after the name of a class in its definition. This restriction was however overly strict, and it unintentionally affected valid code (#12977).
The second regression found in 1.7.0 affected the generated machine code in some platforms, where an internal runtime method for loading debug info lead to a side-effect on large IO operations. The exact reasons for this codegen bug are not entirely understood yet, but a workaround fixes the immediate effect.
Finally, in this patch we included a fix for an unhelpful compiler error predominantly appearing for Windows users which don’t have a linker installed (#12899).
If you find any further issue, please report it.
We have been able to do all of this thanks to the continued support of 84codes, Nikola Motor Company and every other sponsor. To maintain and increase the development pace, donations and sponsorships are essential. OpenCollective is available for that. Reach out to crystal@manas.tech if you’d like to become a direct sponsor or find other ways to support Crystal. We thank you in advance!