Why PHP? (The Good Parts)

PHP has a lot of basic usability flaws.

However, it also has a few unique advantages that has made it one of the most popular languages in the world.

THT keeps the good parts of PHP:

PHP is available on every major web host and OS. Using it with Apache is fast out of the box, with virtually no system administration.In PHP, every file has a URL. THT automatically provides clean URLs (e.g. "/myBlog.tht" becomes "/my-blog"), and blocks access to private code.State and data are automatically cleaned up after every request. This "share nothing" approach enables horizontal scaling and simplifies your app flow.PHP is a web language at its core. THT embraces this even further by building in web security and framework features.PHP comes with a massive library of convenient functions. THT completely re-organizes this library and makes it more consistent.

A Quick Look 

THT uses a more modern JavaScript-like syntax, with additional shortcuts and safeguards.

This similarity to JS makes it more accessible as a general tool for all web developers.

// Variables are pre-declared.
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</>
    <ul>
    -- for (color in colors) {
        <li>{{ color.toUpperCase() }}</>
    -- }
    </>
}

Key Features 

Here are some of the biggest improvements that THT provides:

Web Framework Included 

THT includes many 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

Built-In Security 

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

Because these are integrated into the language itself, they provide better protection than if they were imported from a third-party library.

• 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.

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.

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.

Compared to the most popular PHP packages, THT 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).

The THT bundle is about 80x smaller than Laravel and its dependencies (180 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 suitable for most small-to-medium web apps.