Description

The codebase uses == "" and != "" in ~91 places across 41 files to check for empty strings, instead of Crystal's idiomatic .empty? / !.empty?.

Note: This is the string-comparison companion to #1121 (which covers .size > 0 / == 0 / != 0 for collections and strings). They overlap conceptually but are syntactically different patterns.

Affected files (sampling — top offenders)

• src/noir.cr — 8 instances (e.g. noir_options["url"] != "", noir_options["diff"] != "")
• src/optimizer/optimizer.cr — 7 instances (e.g. if tiny_tmp.url != "", if new_value != "")
• src/models/noir.cr — 6 instances
• src/analyzer/analyzers/javascript/express.cr — 4 instances
• src/analyzer/analyzers/crystal/kemal.cr, grip.cr, amber.cr — 4 instances each
• src/analyzer/analyzers/ruby/sinatra.cr, rails.cr — 3 instances each
• src/output_builder/mermaid.cr:45 — if path == "/" || path == ""
• src/output_builder/powershell.cr:36 — if baked[:body] != ""
• src/minilexers/golang.cr:31,37 — if @buffer != ""
• src/config_initializer.cr:61 — if symbolized_hash[key].to_s == ""

Expected

# Before
if value == ""
if value != ""

# After
if value.empty?
unless value.empty?
# or:
if !value.empty?

Notes

• For Hash#[] results that may be non-string (noir_options["url"]), call .to_s first or check the original type.
• For mixed conditions like path == "/" || path == "", only the empty-string side needs the change: path == "/" || path.empty?.
• This can be tackled incrementally per file or per directory.