As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 11 years ago.
Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
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).
Related
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 11 years ago.
I worked/working in core Java, PHP and have strong intention to learn Python and A.I. related languages. But always I do coding (PHP, Java) on windows platform (I feel pity about it myself..) . Always I wanna work in Linux environment. But I wonder what difference it makes. Someone explain me that please. And please provide some good books for linux learning. I checked google for it. But there comes books in different varieties of it (Administration, Linux programming etc.,). So to just do coding in PHP on linux platform what level of book I should read for linux.
Note: I am zero in Linux knowledge and I am interested in Linux programming too.
My best recommendation is to create a mini project for yourself and dive in. It won't be easy by any means, but the hands on experience will help you learn. Maybe, take one of your existing PHP or Java applications and attempt to get it working in Linux. As a starting point, you'll need LAMP for PHP, and Tomcat for your java applications if they're web based. You might want to start first with a very user friendly OS such as Ubuntu. Then move on to RHEL (CentOS is free).
The biggest differences that I've found are the communities and the cost. The cost difference is a common debate between people in businesses concerning achieving business needs with open source or proprietary solutions. When I mention the communities, in my experience, I've always found that open source projects tend to have more robust communities that feel, in my words, "real". Some of the proprietary communities feel like their driven by $$$ and marketing. However, that is just my opinion.
On a side note, since expanding Linux knowledge on my resume, I have had a lot more job opportunities.
I can see two questions from your text:
1) Does PHP programming on Linux differ from PHP programming on Windows?
Answer: No, it does not. There may be other tools that you work with, but even on Windows you have plenty of choices (from a simple Notepad to an IDE). Lots of tools (e.g. IDEs like NetBeans or Eclipse) are available on both platforms, which makes the switch to Linux even easier.
If you want to run the Script on your local machine, you could install a basic LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) configuration on your system, comparable to e.g. XAMPP on Windows. Or you could install just the php-cli (command line interface), without the complete webserver, if you want to run only some scripts in command line.
2) Is Linux difficult to use?
Answer: No, it is not :-) The best way to find it out is to get e.g. the very user-friendly Linux Distribution Ubuntu and try it on your own. You can run the System as a Live CD without installing anything, if you want to test things.
After working a bit with Linux, you get quickly used to it and even developing applications shouldn't be that hard.
I can't recommend any books, though. Maybe someone else can.
To learn linux you must learn shell scripting. Without shell scripting linux is nothing. I think this is the mean reason that the programmers select linux for their coding. I recommend you take a look on this site.Hope it will help you.
I started programming in Linux just two weeks back, before that i was always programming in Windows.
Theres no difference, except if you use any Specific IDE, i use PHP Storm and that was available in linux as well so its almost the same.
Also you will need to get used to with some Shell commands to get used to it, but without starting you wont learn anything. just install a ubuntu along with windows and you will get fluent very soon. now i hardly open windows :)
To answer the last part of your question:
So to just do coding in PHP on linux platform what level of book I should read?
You can read any beginning PHP book. Whether you are writing your code on a Windows or Linux OS, the end result is the same, a .php file. When you load a page in your browser, the PHP file gets interpreted and compiled by the PHP server. The file that it produces then gets rendered by your browser. So whether you are running firefox on windows, or linux, it really doesnt matter. I hope this clears up some of your confusion.
If you are a beginner, I would suggest you do some experimenting on a server that is already set-up for you, as configuring and installing one on Linux can be confusing at first. Try some simple scripts etc etc, and pick up a book on beginning linux.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 11 years ago.
Can anyone suggest a PHP IDE (preferably built in Cocoa/ Objective-C, not Java) that also has native support or an excellent plugin for Git?
I am currently using NetBeans but I am not happy with the speed and the patchy Git plugin. I have previously used Zend Studio for a long time but that had stability issues.
TextMate is my editor (ah.. no IDE) of choice. I use the GIT bundle and the Project+ plugin to see the directory structure etc.
Aptana 2.0 is the stable version but I have been using the beta version 3.0 and love it
I've been using Komodo IDE for a few years now and think it's pretty great.
I don't know any native PHP IDE for MacOSX.
However, I have been using RubyMine since its first public release, and I'm really happy with it. I would suggest you to try PhpStorm, the PHP-equivalent.
The GIT plugin is awesome.
Older post but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
All I really want is something that has great support for ruby/rails and php, and first class git support. It's quite hard to find actually.
I like Netbeans but no native git support is a killer. Even though it was a touted feature for version 7, it's nowhere to be seen even in 7 beta. Coda is nice but I find it lacks enough serious features to be a real development tool beyond the html with php sprinkled in crowd. Textmate, version 2 is some serious vaporware, and it's painfully slow on the occasion I attempt to load a remote project through a VPN. It's scanning large app directories on startup takes forever.
Then there's rubymine and phpstorm, which are nice, but then I'd have one IDE for ruby and one for php. Not exactly ideal... And of course most of these things are java anyway, which tend to be a little ugly and slow even if functional.
Realistically there's no good solution. For the longest time I've used skEdit since it had the bare features I needed. It has no git support, but at least it's native and fast, and one of the few editors I found that supports SFTP remote projects. Lately I've been using Aptana Studio 3 a bit more and I'm iffy on it. I love the git support, it's fantastic, and the built in ruby/rails tools are exceptional. Works quite well with php as well. However it's still a big java app, and the launch and shutdown times are a bit annoying, not to mention it can be a bit laggy at times... But so far, from what I've seen if you're looking for one IDE with good git support for web languages, Aptana 3 is probably the best bet...
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 11 years ago.
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.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 11 years ago.
Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
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.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
I'm looking for an IDE with use with the Symfony Framework.
I have a bit of experience using the NetBeans 6.5 IDE but it does not always seem to complete the class methods, plus it doesn't seem to have any PHP code snippets built in.
Here are the features I would ideally like to have, in order of importance, from an IDE:
Code completion of all the Symfony and Propel class methods (I can never remember them)
Code templates,(class skeletons, HTML structures, Symfony templates?)
Straight-forward code debugging
Source Control
If you could wait, Symfony support is coming to Netbeans soon: http://www.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=145913. I'll go with Zend Studio 5.5's debugging and inspection features for the time being.
Eclipse with PDT
I recommend NetBeans. You can follow this tutorial: Use NetBeans to setup a PHP Symfony project
A lot of things change. the above link is broken now. And Oracle owns Netbeans now. So, I do NOT recommend netbeans to you any more! Try gvim!
I've been using Symfony since version 0.6, and have used Zend Studio (both the earlier versions, and the later Eclipse based versions), Eclipse, Komodo, NetBeans, VIM, e TextEditor and Sublime Text.
I've recently switched to PHP Storm, and I have to say... It completely annihilates all the other options. Definitely my choice!
Komodo IDE (or, without debugging and Source Control, the free Komodo Edit) + a set of commands for Komodo to use symfony tasks. does all your 4 points, and also works for Perl, Python, Ruby and Tcl.
Symfony is supported by NetBeans 6.8.
I'd recommend you to use PHPEDIT, it is the software with the best support for all symfony versions,
you can watch a screencast of how easy can be develop symfony projects with phpedit.
Link
As for me, it's Eclipse + PDT.
But NetBeans already has support of phpDoc 1.4 (while PDT hasn't), so you can document (and IDE will be able to autocomplete) "magic" properties and methods. Doctrine users will surely appreciate that :)
UPD: Some time passed and I've moved to NetBeans first (it appeared lighter, faster and less complicated). Then I've used PhpStorm EAP, liked it and even bought a license :)
So, here and now my IDEs of choice are:
NetBeans — free
PhpStorm — paid, most intelligent (static source analysis is real killer feature)
You can simply use Textmate for Symfony development. After getting the grip of it, it can be perfectly fit as well.
I used Eclipse PDT in the past, and switched to Netbeans a month ago... After having tried both, I would recommend Netbeans: It has better refactoring tools and it performs better in general.
It's NetBeans for PHP. It supports symfony.
Check out Symfoclipse, a Symfony plugin for Eclipse + PDT environment. Here's the link ;-)
PHPEdit blows away the competition. Of course you have to pay for it, but it has support for SVN, GUI for all symfony commands, yaml editing, etc.
You get a lot for your money and makes development so much easier and faster.
You will make back your money with one project just off of the time you saved.
I prefer old school, textmate or bbedit (which I am becoming a real fan of)