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Regarding Coding Style
The Trongate framework minimizes overheads to achieve best-in-class performance. This philosophy extends to its coding style, focusing on three primary goals:
- Maximize Developer Productivity: Achieve more with fewer lines of code.
- Embrace Pure PHP Syntax: Mirror the familiarity of native PHP conventions.
- Minimize Ambiguity: Use clear naming conventions to reduce errors.
Modern PHP for Enhanced Web Development
The Trongate framework's core resides in the 'engine' directory. All functions and methods within this directory include doc blocks, access modifiers (public/private/protected), type hinting, and return types, ensuring well-documented, modern PHP syntax.
Despite this, Trongate introduces unique syntax nuances that distinguish it from other frameworks.
Aligning PHP with C Roots
Trongate aims to provide a coding experience akin to pure PHP. Code examples in this documentation follow the K&R (Kernighan and Ritchie) coding style.
K&R is a compact, unambiguous style commonly used in C programming. It is named after Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, authors of "The C Programming Language."
Key Characteristics of K&R Style
- Indentation uses two spaces, not tabs, for consistency.
- Opening curly braces '{' appear on the same line as the function or control statement.
- Closing curly braces '}' align with the start of the controlling statement.
Example
Additional Coding Conventions
Trongate promotes the following practices:
- Use snake_case for function, file, and directory names.
- Prefer plural names for collections or groups.
- Adopt two-space indentation for clarity.
Trongate's syntax mirrors PHP's core conventions, such as snake_case, ensuring familiarity and consistency for developers.
Snake Case for Clarity
Trongate's use of snake_case reduces ambiguity, unlike camelCase conventions in languages like JavaScript. For example, getElementById() versus getElementByID() can confuse developers. Snake_case eliminates such issues by using lowercase letters and underscores, e.g., get_element_by_id.
This approach simplifies development, reduces cognitive load, and prevents common errors.
Minimal Use of Namespaces and Access Modifiers
Trongate streamlines development by minimizing namespaces and access modifiers. This contrasts with traditional PHP frameworks but accelerates development processes.
While optional, many developers find this approach enhances efficiency once adopted.
Modern PHP Features
PHP 8 introduces features like type hinting, doc-blocks, return types, and constructor property promotion. These enhance code clarity and robustness but remain optional.
Trongate supports these features but generally avoids them in documentation to maintain simplicity and accessibility for new developers.
Developers familiar with modern PHP features are encouraged to use them to improve code quality and maintainability.
For example, consider the following PHP method:
The above syntax works without any issues. However, with modern PHP, it is possible to enhance the method by adding access modifiers, doc blocks, type hinting, and return types. For example:
To be clear, readers are encouraged to use modern PHP syntax where possible. However, for the purposes of brevity and clarity, code samples will be kept as simple as possible throughout this documentation.
Conclusion
Trongate's syntax differs significantly from other PHP frameworks through streamlined practices, unique naming conventions, and concise coding. These deliberate choices prioritize efficiency and error reduction.
By refining coding practices, Trongate enhances developer productivity and advances PHP development through thoughtful innovation.