PHP editor software recommendations

Saw the post on Eclipse and thought I’d ask a similar question. I’ve looked at Eclipse and, as far as using it on Windows, I don’t think it will be worth the trouble. Instead, I’ve started looking at other editors. For the longest time I’ve always used Dreamweaver. Now I’m thinking that perhaps when I’m just doing PHP coding and the like, a good editor might be in order. I’ve looked at a couple of commercial ones, NuSphere PhpEd and Zend Studio. Only problem I have with these is the price...I just don’t want to fork out over $300 right now. Now, I’ve also looked at PHP Designer 2005. For an open-source editor...it looks pretty damn good. It’s a little sluggish...but then again, I might just need to tweak it and configure it for my own coding style. My question is...what does everyone else use? Any and all suggestions or comments would be most welcome!

Jeff

When I’m stuck working with a Windows box, I use Crimson Editor. Nothing fancy, just color-coding and line numbers. Well, other stuff, too, that I never use but probably should. And a nice, obvious way to let you know if a file has been changed but not saved! Oh, and free. http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

I use PHPEclipse and must say that it’s seems very good. A few minor things here and there but it get the job done right.

Quote from: xwisdom at Jun 26, 2005, 10:16 AM

I use PHPEclipse and must say that it’s seems very good. A few minor things here and there but it get the job done right.

I agree, I can manage many projects with ease using Eclipse with the PHPeclipse extensions. And I do it all on Windows XP Pro boxes. If you want the latest version of the Windows Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl environment to test with locally, take a look at XAMPP at http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. This also works well with the PHPeclipse extensions.

If you are an accomplished programmer, Eclipse gives you all the tools you need to be more productive and efficient, customizable and extensible in almost every way. If you’re not, Eclipse can provide the contextual help and type-ahead selections lists for objects, functions, and variables to turn you into one in no time.

I’m imagining a plugin for Eclipse that allowed management of content, snippet, chunk, TV’s and other resources that could benefit from the editing strengths and organizational power of a client-side IDE. That would be really cool!

Hmm...PHP Eclipse looks interesting enough. Definitely like the idea of it being extensible. However, I’ve been looking at PHP Designer 2005 a bit more (http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php). Definitely has its perks...plus, with TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) it’s possible to have some integration with CVS software like Subversion from within PHP Designer 2005. Hmm...might have to play with Eclipse a bit more...but for a good, free editor, PHP Designer 2005 looks pretty solid so far. Then theres PHP Edit (http://www.waterproof.fr/), which also appears to be free for personal use. Hmm...might have to do some more reviewing on the PHP-Editors website (www.php-editors.com)...definitely quite a bit to choose from! Damn! Decisions, decisions! LOL!

Does anyone have any PHP Editor recommendations for Mac users? I have downloaded the trial version of Zend Studio and it does work pretty nice but is a bit pricey. Any freeware recommendations for an IDE vs. just a text editor?



Fernando

I’m a Mac head here. PHP extensions in Eclipse are supposed to be great and Susan (sottwell) can give you more info there.

I use Textmate and have just downloaded PHP Studio to try out. Not free, but only $25, I think: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27218

The php extension for Eclipse are very nice. They just converted it to use the Eclipse plugin installation, too. I still tend to use SubEthaEdit, though. There is a learning curve to Eclipse that I just haven’t forced myself to sit down and work through. It has subversion plugins as well; they work just fine.

http://www.phpeclipse.de/tiki-view_articles.php

http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/

Quote from: sottwell at Jun 29, 2005, 12:52 PM

The php extension for Eclipse are very nice. They just converted it to use the Eclipse plugin installation, too. I still tend to use SubEthaEdit, though. There is a learning curve to Eclipse that I just haven’t forced myself to sit down and work through. It has subversion plugins as well; they work just fine.

http://www.phpeclipse.de/tiki-view_articles.php

http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/

Ugh...I tried Eclipse. I still even have it on my computer. I just can’t wrap my brain around the learning curve to start using a full fledged IDE. I love using Crimson Editor so much more. It’s just so much easier!

It just seems like the IDE is always a tiche too slow (Athlon 64 3800XP w/ 1GB RAM Laptop) and I couldn’t stand every time I was working in an include file, it would always try and display it...

Of course, I could just be a moron...why should I move to a full on environment?

Oh man...I hear ya! I’ve been playing with PhpEclipse as well and...well...I just don’t get it. The debugger is the part I’m being most critical of with any IDE I’m looking at. So far the Eclipse debugger doesn’t impress me much...too much of a hassle really. The same applies to some of the others I’ve looked at: PHP Designer 2005, NuSphere PhpED, PhpEclipse. All of them just seem to fall short of my expectations.

I can see now why so many rave about Zend...their IDE is pretty damn good. Granted, it doesn’t have every stinkin’ feature that other’s have....but then again, Zend’s focus was on creating a solid IDE rather than one with everything and the kitchen sink. I’m pretty impressed with it’s debugging features...probably the best of all IDE’s, really. And, yeah, it’s a bit pricey...but the Standard Version is only $99, which is good for someone who doesn’t need alot of advanced features that the Pro and Enterprise versions have. Hell, I don’t mind forking out $300 for the Pro version if it means having an IDE that I know will work for my needs. And when you think about it, as important as your software tools are to do your job, spending $300 isn’t all that bad considering what you get. The average developer could make that back with but a portion of one job. Since I still do alot with Dreamweaver, I’ll likely be hopping back and forth between it and my main PHP IDE...which right now looks like it could be Zend Studio.