[mgalusha]

Just wondering what IDE (if any) you PHP hackers use? When I've written PHP in the past I used UltraEdit and PrimalCode which support syntax highlighting. Primal code has some code intelligence and function/method browsing built in but isn't really what I'd call an IDE.

I'm hoping to contribute some work to a PHP project and since time is limited I want to be as productive as possible. My regular job includes a fair amount of development in the MS .NET environment (C# and VB) and I've decided I really like having more than just nicely highlighted syntax. While MS has their share of problems the IDE and debugger in Visual Studio is a joy to use most of the time.

I found a decent article comparing various PHP IDE's on IBM's web site (http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-php-ide/index.html) and it offers some good information but I wanted to see if any of our members had favorites or ones they have grown to hate. I remember from the thread about what our members do that we definitely have some coders on the site. 'Cmon boys, let's hear what you have to say.

mike

[mgalusha]

Well, I downloaded and installed phpEdit from WaterProof Software in France and so far it seems quite nice. I've only spent a short time poking around but it reminds me quite a bit of the MS .NET IDE, which I admit was part of the reason I decided to try this one first.

Since my php coding is fairly limited I figured it would be best if the IDE resembled on I already know pretty well and I could spend more time writing code and improving my knowledge of php.

It seems to have a nice debugger and has ties to CVS and SubVersion, so that will certainly help.

[Papajin]

I haven't tried it myself, as I usually just go the editor route, but I've heard some hubbub about CodeGear's Delphi for PHP.  Might be worth checking out the free trial.  Of course the final cost might rule it out for you.

[mgalusha]

Thanks for the input. It looks pretty nice but as you say, the cost is a problem. If I was using this to earn a living it wouldn't be an issue but for personal use and open source contributions spending $300 is a little hard to swallow. The Zend Studio is supposed to be very nice but it's the same price as well. Now if I could get my boss to pay for a copy.... Probably not happening given the very small amount of php I do at work.

[JohnR]

I need to run on OS/X, so I'll give the Eclipse one a try.

[mgalusha]

ActiveState's Komodo runs on OS/X as well. 'Course it too is $295. I use Oxygen XML editor at work and I think it runs on top of Eclipse, so I may have to give that a try as well since the Oxygen product works quite well. A little slow since you have to wait for the Java engine to load but not too bad.