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I'm a PHP developer and now I use Notepad++ for code editing, but lately I've been searching for an IDE to ease my work.
I've looked into Eclipse, Aptana Studio and several others, but I'm not really decided, they all look nice enough but a bit complicated. I'm sure it'll all get easy once I get used to it, but I don't want to waste my time.
This is what I'm looking for:
FTP support
Code highlight
SVN support would be great
Ruby and JavaScript would be great
For PHP I would recommend PhpStorm.
It supports FTP/SFTP synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial and even with Git. Also, it supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript and handles language-mixing well like SQL or HTML blocks inside PHP code, JSON, etc.
But if you need Ruby you can try another IDE - RubyMine with same capabilities but for Ruby.
NetBeans. Check out 7.0.1.
It supports FTP/SFTP synchronization, integrates well with Subversion, CVS, Mercurial and even with Git (with plugin). Also, it supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, popular frameworks and more.
And its free.
Too bad no one mentioned phpDesigner. It's really the best IDE I've came across (and I believe I've tried them all).
The main pro of this one is that it's NOT Java based. This keeps the whole thing quick.
Features:
Intelligent Syntax Highlighter - automatic switch between PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript depending on your position!
PHP (both version 4 and 5 are supported)
SQL (MySQL, MSSQL 2000, MSSQL 7, Ingres, Interbase 6, Oracle, Sybase)
HTML/XHTML
CSS (both version 1 and 2.1 are supported)
JavaScript
VBScript
Java
C#
Perl
Python
Ruby
Smarty
PHP:
Support for both PHP 4 and PHP 5
Code Explorer for PHP (includes, classes, extended classes, interfaces, properties, functions, constants and variables)
Code Completion (IntelliSense) for PHP - code assist as you type
Code Tip (code hint) for PHP - code assist as you type
Work with any PHP frameworks (access classes, functions, variables, etc. on the fly)
PHP object oriented programming (OOP) including nested objects
Support for PHP heredoc
Enclose strings with single- or double quotes, linefeed, carriage return or tabs
PHP server variables
PHP statement templates (if, else, then, while…)
Powerful PHP Code Beautifier with many configurations and profile support
phpDocumentor wizard
Add phpDocumentor documentation to functions and classes with one click!
phpDocumentor tags
Comment or uncomment with one click!
Jump to any declaration with filtering by classes, interfaces, functions, variables or constants
Debug (PHP):
Debug with Xdebug
Breakpoints
Step by step debugging
Step into
Step over
Run to cursor
Run until return
Call stack
Watches
Context variables
Evaluate
Profiling
Multiple sessions
Evaluation tip
Catch errors
Are you sure you're looking for an IDE? The features you're describing, along with the impression of being too complicated that you got from e.g. Aptana, suggest that perhaps all you really want is a good editor with syntax highlighting and integration with some common workflow tools. For this, there are tons of options.
I've used jEdit on several platforms successfully, and that alone puts it above most of the rest (many of the IDEs are cross-platform too, but Aptana and anything Eclipse-based is going to be pretty heavy-weight, if full-featured). jEdit has ready-made plugins for everything on your list, and syntax highlighting for a wide range of languages. You can also bring up a shell in the bottom of your window, invoke scripts from within the editor, and so forth. It's not perfect (the UI is better than most Java UIs, but not perfect yet I don't think), but I've had good luck with it, and it'll be a hell of a lot simpler than Aptana/Eclipse.
That said, I do like Aptana quite a bit for web development, it does a lot of the grunt work for you once you're over the learning curve.
Eclipse PDT is very nice.
I'm always amazed that more people don't use ActiveState Komodo.
It has the best debugging facilities of any PHP IDE I have tried, is a very mature product and has more useful features than you can shake a stick at. Of note, it has a fantastic HTTP inspector, Javascript debugger and Regular Expression Toolkit. You can get it so that it steps through your PHP, then you see your Javascript running, and then see your HTTP traffic going out over the wire!
It also comes in free (Komodo Edit) and open (OpenKomodo versions).
Oh, and if you don't always hack just on PHP, it's designed as a multi-language editor and rocks for Ruby and Python too.
I've been a happy customer for around 5 years.
There's no "best" IDE, only better and worse ones.
Right now I'm trying to settle in with Aptana. It has a lot of cruft that I don't want, like "Jaxer" doodads all over the place. It's reasonably fast, but chokes on large files when syntax highliting is on. I have not been able to figure out how to set up PHP debugging. Three good things about Aptana: easy plugin installations, very fast and intuitive Subversion plugins, ligning fast file search.
I tried Eclipse PDT and Zend for Eclipse, but they have nightmare levels of interface cruft. Installing plugins is a living horror of version mismatches and cryptic error messages.
I also use Komodo (they bought us licenses at work). Komodo has a very intuitive interface, but is ridiculously slow, chokes on medium sized files with syntax highlighting. File search is intuitive, but rather slow. Subversion integration is not that great - slow and buggy. If not for slowness, I would have probably stuck with Komodo, especially for the debugger.
To get you started, here is a list of PHP Editors (Wikipedia).
For PHP in particular, PHPEdit is the best, and I tried and worked in some of them including, Dreamweaver, Elipse, Emacs, Notepad++, NetBeans, UltraEdit ...
Geany is a great lightweight editor -- like Notepad++ for Linux, only better. I find this, combined with a few shell scripts and symlinks for linking modules into a web source tree, make developing on Linux easy and fun.
I love JetBrains IDEs. For PHP it is JetBrains PHPStorm.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-ide/index.html
Personally, I love Notepad++... :D . The above link compares some of the better IDEs and the best ones aren't free.
I'd recommend Komodo 4.4 though (I used the trial version) since it was awesome. Better than Notepad++, but not free... :(
I would recommend Zend IDE for the integrated debugger.
I'm using Zend Studio. It has decent syntax highlighting, code completion and such. But the best part is that you can debug PHP code, either with a standalone PHP interpreter, or even on a live web server as you "browse" along your pages. You get the usual Visual Studio keys, breakpoints, watches and call stack, which is almost indispensable for bug hunting. No more "alert()"-cluttered debugged source code :)
Have you looked at Delphi for PHP (<http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/php>) ?
Joe Stagner of Microsoft really likes Delphi for PHP.
He says it here: "[Delphi for PHP] 2.0 is the REAL DEAL and I LOVE IT !"
Eclipse with PDT.
I use and like Rapid PHP.
What features of an IDE do you want? Integrated build engine? Debugger? Code highlighting? IntelliSense? Project management? Configuration management? Testing tools? Except for code highlighting, none of these are in your requirements.
So my suggestion is to use an editor that supports plugins, like Notepad++ (which you are already used to). If there's not already a plugin that does what you want, then write one.
I use Coda on Mac OS X.
There is a new guy in town, PhpStorm from JetBrains. You use it and I bet you will forget all the other editors. It's bit pricey though, unfortunately.
RadPHP (previously known as Delphi for PHP) is the best.
All are good, but only Delphi for PHP (RadPHP 3.0) has a designer, drag and drop controls, GUI editeor, huge set of components including Zend Framework, Facebook, database, etc. components. It is the best in town.
RadPHP is the best of all; It has all the features the others have. Its designer is the best of all. You can design your page just like Dreamweaver (more than Dreamweaver).
If you use RadPHP you will feel like using ASP.NET with Visual Studio (but the language is PHP).
It's too bad only a few know about this.
Aptana supports this and I use it for all of my web development now.
Hands down the best IDE for PHP is NuSphere PHPEd. It's a no contest. It is so good that I use WINE to run it on my Mac. PHPEd has an awesome debugger built into it that can be used with their local webserver (totally automatic) or you can just install the dbg module for XAMPP or any other Apache you want to run.
The best IDE for PHP in my opinion is Zend Studio (which itself is based on Eclipse PDT). Note that in this case "best" does not necessarily mean "good." It is slow and a bit buggy, but even so, it's still the best option for PHP programmers. I've tried a ton of PHP editors over the years and I haven't yet found one that works great.
Komodo IDE would be my second choice. My only problem with Komodo is that the autocomplete is not as good. With properly structured apps where you use phpDoc to document return types etc., it should be alright. But I work on a project that doesn't really do that and Komodo can't read across files to know that $user is a User object for example.
Personally everything that is based uppon Eclipse or NetBeans is an overkill, the GUI is crap and the performance is soooo slow compared to other alternatives.
If you're willing to pay I would suggest Zend IDE (version 5.5, not 6 because it's based on Eclipse) and EditPlus for a more lightweight yet powerfull code editor.
If you're looking for free alternatives, or if you code in other languages other than PHP, OpenKomodo is a really nice IDE with almost all the features (no SVN neither CVS) that you require, the only con I see about OpenKomodo is that sometimes it messes my code indentation, but then again I don't use it on a very regular basis.
As for a free lightweight alternative: Notepad++. =)
My personal preference is Eclipse (with various plug-ins) as I am developing in several languages (PHP, Java, and Ruby) and this way I am always used to interface and keyboard shortcuts. This is not a minor thing as you become very productive this way.
I haven't used Aptana, but will (hopefully) soon - it does look interesting, though.
For others IDEs I have used: jEdit (for little Java), Notepad++ (still for some scripting and short test code runs).
And for the features You asked: Eclipse support many source code version servers (Subclipse); your project can be on a Samba share; ZendDebugger/xdebug for debugging.
I've tried Eclipse PDT, with some success. Aptana is also pretty good, or if you are doing a lot of AJAX stuff, it's great. Your mileage may vary, however, depending on what additional plugins you want to use with them.
PHPEclipse is as close to Eclipse java power as it could get. Eclipse PDT is much weaker (last time I checked).
I'm using PHPDesigner but I will go for Eclipse PDT. I was always against Eclipse until few months ago when I have one Java project to finish... Great IDE
Now I can't imagine one day without Eclipse. :)
Have you tried NetBeans 6? Zend Studio and NetBeans 6 are the best IDEs with PHP support you'll come across and NetBeans is free.
Related
I've recently started using PHP for OO development. On OSX, I have outgrown Coda and feel like Textmate takes more time to set up than to actually use. I've downloaded a few of the "real" IDEs, but I feel like they are overkill and I can't find any way to ease myself into it and/or they are way too busy.
I'm looking for something that does code folding, validation, can colorize PHP/PDO/HTML in the same document, and hopefully do completion of my classes and methods that doesn't require 6 months to be productive again.
Can anyone throw me a bone?
Aptana
Eclipse PDT
Netbeans
Kate
Currently I'm using Aptana Beta 3 and there are a couple of bugs, but with the new IDE coming out in a couple of months it should be great. Been a avid Aptana user for a couple of years now.
NOTE: Aptana was Acquired by Appcelerator
I personally use netbeans 6.9.1 and have been very happy with it. Here are my favorite features:
-- functions, classes, comment blocks and other structures are automatically set up for code folding, but you can also highlight any block and make an arbitrary code fold.
-- syntax highlighting is good
-- full support for new php 5.3 features (namespaces etc.)
-- the autocomplete works, but also stays out of the way when I don't need it.
-- refactoring works really well
-- it has a lot of built in macros, plus you can create your own
-- it does nice, fast code validation.
-- completely supports xdebug through a local/remote web server.
-- has built in symfony support
-- tracks polymorphism well
-- I program a lot of c/c++ and java as well, so its really nice to get familiar with just one IDE.
-- it has seamless built in supprt for SVN/CVS and other SCMs. Things like renaming/deleting a file in the IDE play nice with your SCM. You can also commit, update, diff etc. in the ide. It also does live diff via colors on the left hand side.
-- I really like the scm diff features.
-- the learning curve isn't too steep, I feel the IDE's features/commands are pretty intuitive.
Overall I have been really happy with netbeans. I have used a lot of other IDE's and none of them are bad, but they just lack certain features that I need. netbeans is not perfect either, but for me its the best IDE I have been able to find. The things I don't really like about netbeans are:
-- everything has to be a project, you can't just work on some code without netbeans creating metadata. However, the location of the metadata storage is customizable, so it doesn't interfere with your source file directory structure.
-- profiling doesn't really work unless you install some weird solaris stuff.
-- it can't mount an svn+ssh working copy, you have to pull it down locally. if you want to use the SCM features.
-- it can be a little slow if you have a lot of large projects open at a time. You can close the projects so netbeans doesn't scan the source code continuously, and that helps. Re-opening a project isn't too slow or difficult either.
All in all, netbeans isn't really breaking any new ground, vim, eclise, phpide and others all do similar things. I just feel like those things work better in netbeans and are easier to access.
hth
I have to suggest vim despite potentially not meeting your last requirement: "doesn't require 6 months to be productive again".
Vim does everything you listed, but has a very steep learning curve. Not likely six months, but you will be fumbling around for a while. In the long run it you'll probably find it worthwhile.
I use Eclipse PDT on a regular basis, but have been thinking about checking out PhpStorm. It looks like it could be a nice alternative (albeit not free).
I suggest use of Nusphere php ide , its too great for php, it has auto complete features and in built server and you can debug run time, you can also set browser for debugging your code , its true php debugger, i am using this debugger since last 3 years ,it’s amazing and it has inbuilt ftp feature so you can also debug your ftp file.
I'm developing PHP apps that leverage several frameworks (though not the Zend Framework yet...) and I make good use of Javascript (mostly jQuery). All mark-up is XHTML, of course, with CSS, etc. I'm looking to move beyond the beautiful simplicity of Notepad++. I'm using Windows Vista. I'm trying to decide between Zend Studio 7 or Dreamweaver CS4.
They seem pretty on par with each other, but the price points are different. I've seen a few lists of "Good things about Dreamweaver" or "Good things about Zend Studio" but I've yet to find a head-to-head comparison.
Any suggestions on the next IDE to move up to? In addition to the language support and basic error checking (syntax-related, like missing semi-colons or something), I'm looking for two things that are absolutely necessary:
"Projects" or something similar --
open a project and it gives a tree
listing of all related files
beneath. I'm pretty sure both
support this.
As lightweight as possible. Vista's a hog as it is,
and I'd like to have a lightweight
enough IDE that having 10 files open
and moving between them won't drain
my resources.
Other niceties:
Automatic documentation (not sure
what the phrase is, the stuff in
comments above functions with the
#parm stuff).
Templating.
SVN
support.
FTP/File upload
capabilities.
... And, if Zend or Dreamweaver isn't the thing -- any suggestions about what is?
i would suggest Netbease IDE PHP 6.7.
In is free , not so huge like Zend Studio or Dreamweaver.
It has support for
Syntax-highlighting
Templates
PHP Unit
JQuery
Dojo
Code completion for JS / PHP / HTML
Version Control (SVN)
and much more..
Download Netbeans
I suggest try few open source alternatives
Eclipse PDT - Is very good for php but currently don't good support jquery.
Aptana - I build on top of Eclipse and has good support for JQuery. It also has page preview feature.
You can configure different debuggers to work with them like PDT, Zend, Xdebug... all of them can be configured easily.
Zned Studio is also build on top of Eclipse, I have never used that so I can't say anything about it.
I had the same question about year ago. From then I tried many different IDE environments and a found that the most suited one was Netbeans.
The deal with Netbeans was that due to some performance issues it was the solidest IDE there.
As sad as it may be, from my perspective it is much better product than the Zend Studio For Eclipse 6 or 7 witch costs about 400$, (trust me I tried it since I unfortunately wasted the money on licence before I actually tested all available options).
It has the best code completion inspection and assistance, witch you can check yourself by downloading these two IDE-s and trying to code complete chaining method calls.
Support for unit testing is also something worth mentioning since it works. ZDE also has that feature but it is not that stable since sometimes it wont run.
JavaScript support is also solid, actually I think that is better than one in the Aptana, but the only downside of it is that is pretty slow when working with huge libraries such as Dojo. Now some may argue about that but the fact is that (at least with Dojo&dijit) library it has the best code inspection, and fine code completion support.
My opinion is that the only downside is the lack of support for Zend Debugger, and not so intuitive debugging variable, callstack and breakpoint windows.
For now my felling is that this is the best PHP IDE available, something like the Zend Studio 5.5 when it came out.
Netbeans is the clear choice here as long as you aren't limited on memory. It's got a good-sized footprint, but there's no product that can compare...not even Zend.
That being said, the new Aptana 3 was supposed to bring back full-fledged PHP support that was removed from Aptana 2+ (PDT just isn't a good plugin folks), but now that Appcelerator has taken over Aptana I'm a bit skeptical that the focus toward PHP will continue.
Yes Aptana Studio is good for PHP and also Netbeans. I like Netbeans more because it feels more solid. But Aptana has propably the best auto-complete support for javascript of all editors, but I don't really like the appearance of the editor - looks too 'macish'.
I would recommend both actually, side by side as each has its strengths and weaknesses
Zend Studio is excellent for:
PHP class coding enables you to view and browse class hierarchies, provides autocomplete, one click access to PHP Manual
unit testing
debugging
profiling
version control integration
Dreamweaver CS4 for
HTML coding
CSS editing
Other visual design
To me, I still have that impression of Dreamweaver being drag and drop for web "designers" and creating horrible html output that does that validate sometimes. If this still happens with DW CS4, then I would definitely go with Zend Studio.
Zend Studio actually supports with all the Eclipse Plugins that I would like to add for unit testing and continuous integration.
But Aptana and NetBeans are free!!! Which I think Zend editor is not, haven't tried that. I like Netbeans!!! I like Dreamweaver CS4 and use it on daily basis at my job(but not coding php). It's quite nice but I feel it's strength is the help you get with css properties. Besides that it's not better than Netbeans. if you like a shiny cool look like DW so go for Aptana, it has the best javascript autocompletion - really cool!! Saves a ton of time!! Even auto-completion for your JQuery code and other JS frameworks I think.
Actually Dreamweaver has become more of a dev tool (but I'm not entirely convinced of that). It has integration with Subversion which is kind of cool.
I like NetBeans because I've done some Java coding in it before and now it has support for PHP which is real nice, and it feels like a real dev. IDE.
But DW has this cool gray colors..
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I've been developing web applications for 2 years now, and have been into simpler web pages for many more. I've been using Notepad, then ConText, then Crimson Editor (was my favorite for a long time) and I've been trying with Notepad++. I have NetDrive setup so I can edit and save files directly on the ftp server. On Firefox I use the Web Developer extension, Firebug and a couple more.
As my skills grow and need to do more stuff than before, I'm facing some limitations such as doing some versioning, tracking changes on the code, reverting back to an older version, these things I do them manually. Also I want to be portable so I'm trying to setup everything webdev-related in a Dropbox folder so I can sync it and have a functioning developer setup everywhere I go.
I'm wondering what software would you suggest for web app developing and how can it be setup to be portable or in the cloud?
I thinks it depends on whether you achieve a full-featured IDE or a collection of tools that do their job separately.
After using many editors on different platforms, I use Eclipse and Vi now: For small scripts that have to be changed quickly, Vi is the perfect editor, and it's available for every important platform, but it takes some time to lern the shortcuts.
But since most Web projects grow rapidly in size, I got need of a IDE which suits all my needs:
Subversion integrated
Code completion and helpful function for different languages (Python, PHP, HTML, even C++)
Availability on Mac, Windows and Linux
Open Source
Extensible via Plugins
Fully configurable
Eclipse does this all and much more. All the project stuff is placed in a workspace-directory, which you can sync via Dropbox or anything else if you want (since I would recommend storing project files in a repository rather than on a simple Webdav place).
Jetbrains' Web IDE is currently in beta and should be released before the end of the year. You can already download and use EAP releases. It will be commercial but might have a free/community version (as was recently announced for IntelliJ IDEA).
It's getting quite good with support for PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript. It also has good version control integration (Git and Subversion are the two I've used) and has local change tracking (so you don't even need to check in to something to see old versions and revert them; it does this automatically).
That and a convenient distro like XAMPP is all you really need (well and Firebug).
I use Zend Studio (http://www.zend.com/en/products/studio/) as my IDE. It's not perfect (nor free), but I haven't found anything I like better and it has definitely sped up my development time. It really shines as a PHP editor, has a nice XML editor, decent HTML editor, and so-so JavaScript editor. But since it's built on the Eclipse platform, it should be possible to install plug-ins/mods. If you're like me and your main focus is PHP, with the other three languages taking a backseat, then I imagine this will suit you fine.
I wish I could tell you more about versioning, but I don't know much about this :/ I do know that Studio has a built in SVN manager. It also supports remote connections through FTP. I also use Dropbox, and there is no problem in using the two combined.
I've checked out NetBeans, and a few other IDEs, but there are so many small features/shortcuts that Studio has that the others don't that force me back to Studio. I will add these caveats though: Studio is memory hungry, and code hinting is much slower in the latest version than the previous (though they claim this will be resolved.) I suggest downloading the demo and seeing how you like it for yourself.
Try which editor you like the best. I used Aptana and different other editors (eg.: Zendstudio) a while ago, but I always go back to Geany (but I am on Linux) and a bunch of commandline tools.
You have to figure out yourself what is the best enviroment for you.
The editor part is totally up to you, I use both PHP Eclipse and Vim. I don't think versioning integration in IDE is that important but code completion and syntax error control sure do help.
Look into SVN and TortoiseSVN - it provides comfortable version control and you can use your sources from anywhere with an svn client and it's a must when you start working on one project with other people.
For the last year I've been contentedly developing using NetBeans 6.7 with [xdebug][2], Firebug 1.4 and [Darcs][3] as version control. The whole setup is portable, so I can use it on any windows machine and has proved very reliable; can't recommend it enough.
NetBeans covers all the bases: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP with auto-complete and the xdebug integration, once you get it working, is excellent. Darcs is console only, but its so straightforward to use that you just don't miss the GUI. I use [Console2][4] to work with Darcs.
I'd like to try out Eclipse, but I'm a bit baffled with all the different distributions of it. I mainly program in Python doing web development, but I also need to maintain PHP and Perl apps. It looks like EasyEclipse is a bit behind. Should I just grab the base Eclipse and start loading plug-ins?
Maybe try Aptana (http://www.aptana.com/) - you can then plug in as many extra modules as you require.
PDT 2.0 is vey good Eclipse PHP Ide . It is created with cooperation with Zend, so there a lot of featuers from Zend Studio.
I also use it with Subeclipse(for SVN) and Target Management (for work on FTP remotely).
I will also advice to use Aptana plugins fot HTML and Js - they are much better than standard Web Tools from Eclipse.
I develop Python applications at work and find Eclipse Classic and Eclipse for Java Devs a good fit because I don't do any plugin or Java EE Stuff. We use Eclipse for Java, Python, and NSIS (nullsoft installer) scripting.
The Python development I do requires the pydev plugin (see: http://pydev.sourceforge.net/) which so far has been fantastic on a Windows machine. I found some instability on a Fedora 9 machine, but that is not the general consensus among my linuxier colleagues :)
The pydev plugin comes with a very minimal set of customizable features including a short list of syntax for colouring, and it's very easy to create a dark colour scheme (black bg, bright text) for python development (if that matters to you). The debugger has been pretty good so far, but I have problems when my applications hit threading in PyQt. I don't know if that is a problem with QThread (a Qt Thread) or python threads in general.
I can't offer any advice regarding PERL or PHP but basically like you said, download an Eclipse version and find some good plugins for your development environment.
PyDev is pretty decent as I'm sure you know. It can fit on top of all the Eclipse distributions (provided they meet the minimum version requirements). If you're doing webdev stuff, you'll probably find the closest fit with Aptana.
That said, I find Aptana hideously clunky when compared to a decent text editor. I build sites using django and for that I use Eclipse (pure) and PyDev to do the python and gedit (gnome's souped up notepad) for writing the HTML for templates/CSS/JS/etc.
At the end of the day, whatever suits you best is what you'll go with.
EPIC is the only Eclipse Perl plugin I know for Perl.
The integration is okay. Offers a graphical debugger, but watch out for inspecting data that contains cycles, as the perl exec could just go into an infinite loop
I develop in PHP, python, C(python modules), SQL and JS/HTML/CSS all on eclipse. I do this
by installing PDT, CDT, pydev and SQL tools onto the eclipse-platform, and then using different workspaces for mixed projects.
Two workspaces to be specific, one for PHP web development and another for Python/C. I do run it on a rather powerful machine so I allow eclipse the luxury of added memory (2G).
Works like a charm and it is very nice to be able to use the same IDE for everything :)
I use the javascript eclipse helios and added pydev plugin to it for django support it seems to do everything I need.
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Even though I have a robust and fast computer (Pentium Dual Core 2.0 with 2Gb RAM), I'm always searching for lightweight software to have on it, so it runs fast even when many apps are up and running simultaneously.
On the last few weeks I've been migrating gradually to Linux and want to install a free lightweight yet useful IDE to program on C++ and PHP. Syntax highlighting and code completion tips are must-haves.
If you are taking your time switching to linux, I'd switch to emacs or vim at some point as well. There will always be a resource or a document describing exactly the problem you are having with either of them, and generally a solution is just a few more clicks down the road.
Emacs may be easier at the beginning because of modeless editing... but don't let modal editing scare you away from Vim.
The key with either Vim or Emacs is knowing it could probably take you the better part of the day just to figure out what you want them to do, let alone how to get them to do that.
Once they work for you though, you'll see why mostly everyone is in one of two camps.
General hints:
Setting up a Makefile for your project is almost always worth it.
Using cscope and or ctags will make your life easier.
Vim hints:
:make
:cn, :cp
OmniCompletion
using BufRead autoloads to set what :make should do depending on file type
Emacs hints:
ecb is fun
M-x dired
M-. M-, M-* M-x complete-tag for etags
M-x compile
(add-hook 'mylanguage-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq my-customizations t)))
And check out other people's customizations for examples of what other people do.
gedit
Syntax highlighting
Fast, lightweight
Tabs
GUI
emacs has been used by linux programmers for decades. It features syntax highlighting, it's fast, and there are a million tutorials out there you can find.
Console editors, such as emacs and vi, are more lightweight than their GUI counterparts, and (at least those two are) just as capable as any other IDE (syntax highlighting, mouse support, ctags, autocompletion ... all the way to gdb integration). The learning curve might be somewhat steep, and you might have to do some customization, but its all worth it. Also, vi is present on every installation of unix-like operating system.
Amongst X applications, there are
gedit which comes with GNOME and has many of these IDE features (see, for example, this blog entry),
Geany - really fast, depends only on GTK, and with even more features including code folding.
These would be lightweight IDEs, as opposed to heavyweights like Anjuta, KDevelop, Eclipse or NetBeans.
Vim (or Emacs varying on religion) will always be my first answer to this question, over any point-and-click IDE.
As they write in The Pragmatic Programmer
Choose an editor, know it thoroughly, and use it for all editing tasks. [...] The editor will be an extension of your hand; the keys will sing as they slice their way through text and thought. That's our goal.
Make sure that the editor you choose is available on all platforms you use.
Vim is configurable, extensible, programmable and can be turned into an IDE with all the regular features. Lately I've been using Eclim to "bring Eclipse functionality to the Vim editor" (projects, better java support etc.) making it a complete platform with advanced IDE features.
Joey, I believe anything is lighter than Eclipse! :o)
I bounce about between Mac, Windows and Ubuntu and while Emacs used to be my editor of choice, I'm finding that in my old age I prefer to something GUI-based (using command-line for the shell is still fine by me). My preferred editor is Komodo Edit, which the advantages of:
Being free (as in beer)
Available for Mac, Windows and Linux
Syntax highlighting for a boatload of languages, including C++ and PHP (I'm using it for Ruby, Python and PHP myself)
Code completion, even for classes I defined myself
Ability to "remote save" via FTP, SFTP or SCP
Support for organizing your files into projects
Tabs and other interface niceties
I'm not sure how lightweight it is, but it certainly feels snappier than Eclipse!
How has no one mentioned Code::Blocks!
Not only is it a fantastic Open Source IDE for C++, but it's fully cross platform, so if you need to work on a Windows or Mac box for a bit, you can use the exact same IDE, and exact same project files to do so! Which is great for cross-compiling!
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'lightweight,' but here are a few popular IDEs for linux:
Anjuta for Gtk/Gnome
KDevelop or Quanta for KDE
CodeBlocks runs on Windows/Mac/Linux and is written in C++
None one of these are Java, so they automatically have an edge over Eclipse for performance ;)
Another option is MonoDevelop, which is geared towards .Net/Gtk# programming but also includes C++ support.
This is a really religious question - just choose the one you like. Every editor has it's pros/cons and you need to decide which set suits best to you. There are many IDEs out there that can use various editors like Pida.
Nobody mentioned Kate. It's easier than vi for start (and has nice vi-mode for those, who want to migrate to vi), has more options than gedit (And better syntax highlighting). It also has kioslaves support (nice for remote server PHP development) and it's only a little bit more CPU-demanding than gedit. It can also have built-in console (extremely helpful if you want to quick grep through files or compile the project).
There are also features like:
basic code completion
advanced indentation and block selection operations
good and very clean (to read) find/replace with regexp
comment-out on ctrl+d (it comments out one line or one function if used on function header)
and a lot more...
any of the popular editors can be turned into an ide.
I use Vi on the console and have used various gui editors over the years. This doesn't just go for linux I use Crimson Editor on windows as a C/python/z80asm ide.
what about eclipse with linuxtools?
You can look at jEdit if you are using or have Java installed.
jEdit (wikipedia article)
Again it's a 'smart editor' rather than an IDE. Seems to know how to handle most languages and once its started it is pretty smart, still Java but less resource hungry than Netbeans and Eclipse.
I would say Bluefish, not an I.D.E but a nice lightweight code editor with syntax highlighting and code completion (and many others) for quite an array of languages (among them C and Php).