PHP Development Platform

December 31, 2003 9:09 AM

After using Homesite to edit PHP for the last few years I'm seriously thinking about upgrading to a more functional IDE. I'll use something else for C++ and Java (which I'm not even doing right now), so I really only need this for PHP development. The two that seem to jump out are Zend Studio and NuSphere's PHPEd. Has anyone used these? I'll try the free demos of each, but since I'm potentially spending $200+ I'd like to get some feedback from actual users. Or is there something better out there that I haven't run into?
posted by y6y6y6 to computers & internet (10 comments total)

gvim, perhaps? Works for me, is ridiculously extensible and has PHP support right out the gate.

Or if you want something that looks pretty and has class browsing and such, you might want to try the PHP plugins for Eclipse.
posted by majick at 10:26 AM on December 31, 2003

You might want to take a look at Komodo. When I tried it many months ago, it seemed like an ok IDE, but I ended up going back to Vim / gVim.
posted by Sirius at 10:57 AM on December 31, 2003

i didn't like komodo when i used it. it felt unwieldy. i wish i could provide better contrast, but i have to say that i use vim for file editing as well. vim's default html edit mode doesn't match my indent style, and i think its initial color scheme is horrendous, but it turns out i like modal editing. i like integrating editing with file browsing and debugging myself rather than rely on an IDE, so vim being just a text editor suits me better than an integrated solution like homesite.

a word of caution, if you try out vim: most of its commands are programmed through keystrokes. if you use gvim (the graphical/GUI version), those commands may be hooked into menus and certain "windows-like" shortcut keys, but those may not cover all possible commands. vim commands are easy once you know the keystrokes, but you usually have to research the commands before you know the keystrokes.
posted by moz at 12:51 PM on December 31, 2003

FWIW - modal editing makes my skin crawl.
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:12 PM on December 31, 2003

Why is an IDE necessary in PHP? For the nearly three years I've been doing this, I've used UltraEdit and the only significant IDE-ish feature I care for is the Project Files dialog. Please consider this a part two of the thread...
posted by billsaysthis at 4:16 PM on December 31, 2003

"Why is an IDE necessary in PHP?"

Profiler to find where scripts are running slowly. Debugger. Inspectors. CVS integration. Etc etc. If all I want is an editor then Homesite is bulletproof. But the IDEs I linked above offer a lot more.
posted by y6y6y6 at 4:24 PM on December 31, 2003

You couldn't get me to use it with a gun to my head, but there are people who actually like emacs, and it does have a PHP major mode as well as all the usual IDE knobs and buttons.
posted by majick at 5:24 PM on December 31, 2003

Yeah, Eclipse is a good choice. It's popular and it's got so many plugins.
posted by holloway at 8:32 PM on December 31, 2003

y6, thanks.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:35 PM on January 1, 2004

emacs is the shiznit.
posted by bshort at 2:28 PM on January 1, 2004