diff --git a/src/Latte/Compiler/Compiler.php b/src/Latte/Compiler/Compiler.php
index 8da2d5947..7c2a36036 100644
--- a/src/Latte/Compiler/Compiler.php
+++ b/src/Latte/Compiler/Compiler.php
@@ -426,7 +426,7 @@ private function processHtmlTagEnd(Token $token)
 
 	private function processHtmlAttributeBegin(Token $token)
 	{
-		if (strncmp($token->name, Parser::N_PREFIX, strlen(Parser::N_PREFIX)) === 0) {
+		if (Helpers::startsWith($token->name, Parser::N_PREFIX)) {
 			$name = substr($token->name, strlen(Parser::N_PREFIX));
 			if (isset($this->htmlNode->macroAttrs[$name])) {
 				throw new CompileException("Found multiple attributes $token->name.");
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ private function processHtmlAttributeBegin(Token $token)
 		$context = NULL;
 		if (in_array($this->contentType, [self::CONTENT_HTML, self::CONTENT_XHTML], TRUE)) {
 			$lower = strtolower($token->name);
-			if (substr($lower, 0, 2) === 'on') {
+			if (Helpers::startsWith($lower, 'on')) {
 				$context = self::CONTENT_JS;
 			} elseif ($lower === 'style') {
 				$context = self::CONTENT_CSS;
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ public function closeMacro($name, $args = NULL, $modifiers = NULL, $isRightmost
 		$node = $this->macroNode;
 
 		if (!$node || ($node->name !== $name && '' !== $name) || $modifiers
-			|| ($args && $node->args && strncmp("$node->args ", "$args ", strlen($args) + 1))
+			|| ($args && $node->args && !Helpers::startsWith("$node->args ", "$args "))
 			|| $nPrefix !== $node->prefix
 		) {
 			$name = $nPrefix
diff --git a/src/Latte/Compiler/Parser.php b/src/Latte/Compiler/Parser.php
index 4ad78843a..b38c511c3 100644
--- a/src/Latte/Compiler/Parser.php
+++ b/src/Latte/Compiler/Parser.php
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ class Parser
 	 */
 	public function parse($input)
 	{
-		if (substr($input, 0, 3) === "\xEF\xBB\xBF") { // BOM
+		if (Helpers::startsWith($input, "\xEF\xBB\xBF")) { // BOM
 			$input = substr($input, 3);
 		}
 
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ private function contextHtmlTag()
 			$token->value = isset($matches['value']) ? $matches['value'] : '';
 
 			if ($token->value === '"' || $token->value === "'") { // attribute = "'
-				if (strncmp($token->name, self::N_PREFIX, strlen(self::N_PREFIX)) === 0) {
+				if (Helpers::startsWith($token->name, self::N_PREFIX)) {
 					$token->value = '';
 					if ($m = $this->match('~(.*?)' . $matches['value'] . '~xsi')) {
 						$token->value = $m[1];
diff --git a/src/Latte/Helpers.php b/src/Latte/Helpers.php
index fc9a11ded..f35156206 100644
--- a/src/Latte/Helpers.php
+++ b/src/Latte/Helpers.php
@@ -62,4 +62,14 @@ public static function removeFilter(& $modifier, $filter)
 		return (bool) $found;
 	}
 
+
+	/**
+	 * Starts the $haystack string with the prefix $needle?
+	 * @return bool
+	 */
+	public static function startsWith($haystack, $needle)
+	{
+		return strncmp($haystack, $needle, strlen($needle)) === 0;
+	}
+
 }
diff --git a/src/Latte/Loaders/FileLoader.php b/src/Latte/Loaders/FileLoader.php
index 37677ad00..4e171b793 100644
--- a/src/Latte/Loaders/FileLoader.php
+++ b/src/Latte/Loaders/FileLoader.php
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ public function __construct($baseDir = NULL)
 	public function getContent($file)
 	{
 		$file = $this->baseDir . $file;
-		if ($this->baseDir && strncmp($this->normalizePath($file), $this->baseDir, strlen($this->baseDir))) {
+		if ($this->baseDir && !Latte\Helpers::startsWith($this->normalizePath($file), $this->baseDir)) {
 			throw new \RuntimeException("Template '$file' is not within the allowed path '$this->baseDir'.");
 
 		} elseif (!is_file($file)) {
diff --git a/src/Latte/Macros/CoreMacros.php b/src/Latte/Macros/CoreMacros.php
index da9c18743..4dd58815b 100644
--- a/src/Latte/Macros/CoreMacros.php
+++ b/src/Latte/Macros/CoreMacros.php
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public function macroElse(MacroNode $node, PhpWriter $writer)
 		if ($node->modifiers) {
 			throw new CompileException('Modifiers are not allowed in ' . $node->getNotation());
 		} elseif ($node->args) {
-			$hint = substr($node->args, 0, 2) === 'if' ? ', did you mean {elseif}?' : '';
+			$hint = Helpers::startsWith($node->args, 'if') ? ', did you mean {elseif}?' : '';
 			throw new CompileException('Arguments are not allowed in ' . $node->getNotation() . $hint);
 		}
 		$ifNode = $node->parentNode;
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ public function macroUse(MacroNode $node, PhpWriter $writer)
 	public function macroCapture(MacroNode $node, PhpWriter $writer)
 	{
 		$variable = $node->tokenizer->fetchWord();
-		if (substr($variable, 0, 1) !== '$') {
+		if (!Helpers::startsWith($variable, '$')) {
 			throw new CompileException("Invalid capture block variable '$variable'");
 		}
 		$this->checkExtraArgs($node);