HTTL

Hey Peerlisters! 🎉

❓What is HTTL and what motivated me to create this new programming language?

Nothing can stop humans from creating something new. Even if something already exists, we can make it better, stronger, faster, (add other ..er here) and more efficient.

My story begins when, for a long time, I was not satisfied with the UI REST tools that everyone knows. Every time I asked myself, “Why should I click on all these buttons, checkboxes, and tabs just to finally see the result of my API endpoint?” And even more — if I have an autogenerated Swagger in my project, why can’t I leverage it in these famous UI tools? Yes, I agree there are some good HTTP extensions for modern IDEs that let you write HTTP queries, but none of them give you the real feeling of a programming language.

And here we are - HTTL.

🚀Here are the main challenges this new language aims to address:

Simplicity: Each clause, operator, and language construct is designed to be as streamlined as possible, allowing you to write less code.

For example, you don’t need to write something like GET {{baseUrl}}/api/user. Instead, you can define the base URL at the top of your file and simply use GET /user.

Flexibility: There should be no limit to the number of requests that can be run at once.

For example, you can run multiple requests within a single file and use the results of one request in another — potentially applying data transformations in between, etc.

Modularity: It’s hard to imagine any modern language without the ability to separate code into different files, right?

For example, it’s convenient to define authentication logic in one file and import it for use in other files.

OpenAPI Integration: This is my favorite — there should be an easy way to point to an OpenAPI specification and benefit from built-in type checking and IntelliSense.

Testability: The language should support an easy way to test the output, without requiring any JavaScript inlining or other complex steps.

Extensibility: The language should be easy to extend, allowing you to write your own plugins.

All of this led me to the idea of creating this language because I believe there’s no better tool than code that runs other code.

I’ve stopped using Postman since the beginning of 2025. 😎