THT | Programming Language for Web Development

You Might Like THT If...

You like the convenience of PHP, but don’t want to deal with the many problems and risks that come with it.
You want to learn web development with a language that is easy to learn and has best practices built in.
You want a JavaScript-like language for server-side development, as a simpler alternative to Node.js.

A Quick Look

You don’t need to know PHP to use THT.

// THT has a familiar JavaScript-like syntax.
let colors = ['red', 'blue'];

// Built-in types have methods.
colors.push('yellow');

// The standard library is organized into modules.
Response.sendPage({
    title: 'Primary Colors',
    body: bodyHtml(colors),
});

// Template functions let you separate and
// organize your output/views however you like.
// (e.g. by component, module, file, etc.)
template bodyHtml(colors) {

    <h1>Primary Colors</h1>
    <ul>
    :: for (color in colors) {
        <li>{{ color.toUpperCase() }}</li>
    :: }
    </ul>
}

Built on PHP (The Good Parts)

THT keeps the same convenient workflow of PHP:

Easy Setup

PHP is available on every major web host and OS. Using it with Apache requires little (if any) system administration.

Simple Routes

Creating a page can be as simple as adding a new .tht file. Pages automatically get clean URLs (e.g. "blog.tht" becomes "/blog").

Save & Refresh

No build steps or background tasks. When you update your code, it's automatically transpiled to PHP (and cached for performance).

Atomic Requests

State and data are automatically cleaned up after every request.

New Features

Organized Library. PHP's massive library (5,000+ functions) is curated and organized into modules & classes.
Lists & Maps. PHP arrays are split into clear List and Map types.
Module System. File inclusion is supported via modules, with built-in autoloading. No verbose namespaces.
Friendly Errors. The error pages are designed to be easy to read, with full stack traces.
Syntax Shortcuts. Optional syntactic sugar makes common patterns more convenient. (e.g. ||= for default assignment.)
Cleaner Code. A compile-time format checker helps you write code that is easier to read and maintain.
UTF-8 Support. String functions work with UTF-8 by default.

Web Framework

THT includes many (optional) tools that are useful for modern web development:

Router for clean URLs (e.g. “/blog/123/top-ten-things”)
Templates that support the full THT syntax
Stylesheet with reset styles, grid system & SVG icons
Litemark parser for Markdown-style content
JCON for human-friendly JSON-style configuration
Session support with secure defaults & flash data
Database module with CRUD methods & parameterized queries
Cache module for performance tuning

Security

By default, THT defends against the most common security risks, so you can spend more time building the functionality of your app.

TypeStrings are used to prevent injection attacks, which are considered the #1 security vulnerability on the internet.
User input (which should never be trusted) can only be accessed through validation methods.
Template variables are automatically escaped.
Response headers include CSP to prevent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
Direct calls to high-risk PHP commands like eval are prohibited.
File functions are sandboxed to a data directory, and can’t be used with external (potentially dangerous) URLs.
THT files are hosted outside of the Document Root. Only .tht files in your pages directory can be executed directly via URL.

Read More: All Security Enhancements

Performance

Out of the box, PHP is more than fast enough for most apps.

PHP 7 already offers major speed gains, but you can benefit even more by using an opcode cache like APC.

THT itself is a safe choice, performance-wise:

In a basic “Hello World” benchmark, THT is 6x faster than Laravel (1000 req/s vs 160 req/s) and uses 60% less memory (0.8 MB vs 2 MB).

On a MacBook Pro, the core THT test suite (770 tests) finishes in 18 milliseconds. This includes a full range of operations for control flow, data structures, file access, and database access.

The THT bundle is about 50x smaller than Laravel and its dependencies (230 KB vs 16 MB, zipped).

It also has built-in performance tools:

The Perf Panel is an easy way to profile your overall page speed.
The Cache module can help you minimize the biggest performance hits.
Responses are automatically minified & GZIP compressed, reducing most page sizes by up to 70%.

Give It a Try

THT is still in Beta, but if you’d like to try it out, it’s already capable of building most small-to-medium web apps.

Next: Get Started