Which PHP/CSS IDE to use ?

[Klen]

I was reading various reviews about PHP IDE programs,but seems every program have his group of followers so it's kind a hard to determine which one to pick.So if someone have good reason why certain ide is best,please post.Basically what i need is good debugger,good code completion,project management,support for frameworks and low memory usage and easy creation of css code similar to use of WYSIWYG html editor.
Here is list of programs which i found:
Zend Studio 8
http://www.zend.com/en/products/studio/features
Php Designer
http://www.mpsoftware.dk/testimonials.php
Webuilder
http://www.blumentals.net/webuilder/tour.php?id=3
Php Storm
http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
Netbeans
http://netbeans.org/
And there is also Table2Css program, http://www.table2css.com/ which comes handy for getting fast css code out of tables,but possibly some of those programs already have something similar to make it work.

[Klen]

Bump for programming/designing crew.

[svzcom]

I don't program PHP so much, but when i do i use Netbeans

[AdultKing]

Aptana Studio 3 http://www.aptana.com/

[JayS]

Zend Studio is my first choice because it's the fastest of the eclipse based IDE's, best integration of a debugger and other useful plugins for mysql/xml etc.

If you are looking for a free IDE, go for Netbeans.

[Klen]

And bump for today.

[mafia_man]

PDT because it's free. I do like PHP Storm though, nice git integration.

[HomerSimpson]

Notepad++ user in here

[blazin]

Komodo Edit (free version)

[potter]

I must be weird, I just hand code everything.

[edgeprod]

I must be weird, I just hand code everything.

Not so much weird as inefficient. It's like the quaint shop owner who still figures out your total by hand -- a cash register would be a more efficient choice.

I use phpEd, which doesn't "get in the way" of coding, but helps me organize file structures, includes, etc, in a more sensible fashion.

[mafia_man]

I must be weird, I just hand code everything.

I hand code Python and Ruby but a messy language like PHP needs an IDE.

I wouldn't hand code Java either.

[fris]

im a notepad++ fan here.

also php designer is decent

http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php

[Babaganoosh]

I hate the Java IDEs. What ugly, slow pieces of shit they are. Most of the others are out because they either don't support logging in to ssh with keys or only support weaker keys.

My favorite so far is PHP Designer but I can only use it on the dev server on my local network since it uses regular ssh login via password. It won't log in to my production servers because they all use 4096-bit ssh keys.

Lately I have just been using gedit in linux. I miss some of the tools I have access to in a real IDE but all I really need is syntax highlighting and in linux it's easy to map a ssh connection so I can edit remotely.

[potter]

Not so much weird as inefficient. It's like the quaint shop owner who still figures out your total by hand -- a cash register would be a more efficient choice.

Not disagreeing with you in the slightest.

But there is a reason jquery is what it is now. I could go write pages and pages of javascript to accomplish various things on websites, but instead I'll drop in the jquery library and then only write 15 lines of code to accomplish it.

However the same could be said for even writing a php script (that was so complex it would need an IDE) from scratch instead of starting off with one of the many great open source platforms out there today. There isn't a single thing you could program today in which 99% of would not be reinventing the wheel.

Again, not questioning that an IDE is more efficient. Just stating that the majority of the time if you're writing something so complex an IDE would save you time/energy - you might already be going about the script in an inefficient way.

[raymor]

Not so much weird as inefficient. It's like the quaint shop owner who still figures out your total by hand -- a cash register would be a more efficient choice.

I'll race you. I think it's more about learning curve. Kind of like WYSIWYG versus a text editor.
I used to have a habit of racing WYSIWYG users versus a decent text editor. For a simple page
like Google's home page I could finish duplicating it in a text editor just as the big WYSIWYG
finished loading.

The real advantage to clicking Tools -> Insert -> Div as opposed to just typing
<div>, we found, is that the guy with the text editor has to actually remember
how to code. Typing five characters is a hell of a lot faster and more efficient, though.
Similarly you can click through your IDE add a CSS declaration and you don't have to
remember that it's called font-face. Typing font-face at 50 words per minute is quite
bit more fast and efficient, though. It just has a learning curve.

That's been my experience over fifteen years, anyway. At this point I don't, and wouldn't,
use an IDE except maybe for some GUI design tasks. For creating a Windows GUI, it's
nice to click on "button", drop it on the form, right click, set it's properties, then click the
button to set it's action. Still if I did that every day I bet I could do it faster with a text
editor then all that clicking and right clicking and selecting each property.

[acctman]

PHP Designer http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php

[CYF]

I use nano on the fbsd box, and Coda on my Mac.

[Thomas007]

I have tried Zend Studio, Eclipse PDT and Netbeans.

I'm now using Netbeans because it handles large source files better than the others.

[fris]

PHP Designer http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php

yep decent ;)

[raymor]

Having said all of that anti-IDE stuff I realized I do have some IDE-like features in my text editor - syntax highlighting, syntax check, and a very specific, limited kind if autocomplete. I use probably the most efficient tool which also has the biggest learning curve - vim.

[harvey]

I use Notepad++ but was thinking on some way of improving things with some kind of WYSIWYG editor or something, most specifically for design rather than coding. Sadly, all html/CSS editors I have found are beyond horrible and they end being more confusing since I need to rebuild parts of the code thus spending 2x or 3x the time I would spend with Notepad++ . Then again, would LOVE to find something, up to date the old Netscape Composer WYSIWYG editor was never reached IMHO, that's what I'd need right now: simple, fast, not overcluttered with retard stuff I'll never use and writing perfectly valid code

[react]

TextMate.

[Nookster]

I've tried a lot. It all boils down to what you need it for. If you need it for general project management and code completion (general development use), personally I prefer WeBuilder
For working with frameworks and whatnot, I prefer Zend.

I don't prefer any others. <my 2 cents>

[VladS]

I must be weird, I just hand code everything.

Yeah, me too, i don't need the extra garbage code. I also use Notepad++ from time to time, but for the rest, it's all hand coding.

[VladS]

[...] writing perfectly valid code [...]

There will never be anything like that, or at least not for the more complex layouts.

[harvey]

There will never be anything like that, or at least not for the more complex layouts.

I mean only for html, Netscape Composer could do it, and even though I'm aware that it was a more basic standard set, it's really curious that no editor THAT I KNOW OF could get to something as simple as that. I'd really love to have something like NS Composer only that updated with html4 and html5 standards and some basic CSS, not even complex stuff. I've seen many online services that creates all of these things (by parts), so it's just a question of putting it all together. I mean, something like Dreamweaver but simpler and with way better output.

[CodeR70]

TextMate.

+1

TextMate + rsync

[Young]

Another TextMate user here. I couldn't imagine using anything else...seriously. It's one of the perks of own a Mac.

[Tempest]

EditPlus

[edgeprod]

However the same could be said for even writing a php script (that was so complex it would need an IDE) from scratch instead of starting off with one of the many great open source platforms out there today. There isn't a single thing you could program today in which 99% of would not be reinventing the wheel.

I don't tend to use libraries because they often have significant bloat that I or my clients don't need. Also, there's something to be said for not doing what 99% of people are doing. But overall, you're right.

I'll race you. I think it's more about learning curve. Kind of like WYSIWYG versus a text editor.

I think you're confusing what an IDE does. It's not about inserting <div> automatically for you. Really, it's about what the coder finds helpful (and enables) and what he/she does not find helpful (and disables). For me, here are the main advantages. Other coders' advantages will vary:

1. I use camel-case methods in my classes. So, if I'm doing a query like this:

echo $modelObject->getModelEthnicityCodeByID($modelID);

I can simply auto-complete the method with my tab button, as opposed to continually (and possibly incorrectly) typing it. This saves me a lot of time on pages with complex queries inter-meshed with each other, and on pages with lots of queries in different places.

2. File transfers are a snap for me in an IDE. For example, in my preferred IDE (phpEd), when I'm editing a page, I simply press CTRL+SHIFT+S, and the page is uploaded to the server. Likewise, there are shortcuts to upload my directory, the whole project, etc. No dragging, dropping, logging into other programs, etc, etc.

3. File management is very easy, too. From right inside of the IDE, I can drag-and-drop images, includes, and all sorts of files, as needed. I can then see them in a directory structure and reference them for includes, etc, etc.

4. Fewer typo errors. When I'm auto-completing, there's very little chance of a type in a method, class, or object name.

5. Error checking. I'm beyond leaving off semi-colons, of course, but sometimes when I'm four parenthesis deep, I'll accidentally use three. The IDE lets me know visually and immediately. Same for unclosed nests, etc.

6. Working with a live site is less harrowing. Often, we need immediate changes to a live site without running them through a development environment first. In these cases, they are mission-critical pages that simply cannot load with a PHP error. The IDE helps me check my code to ensure that it'll run right the first time.

[Adultnet]

well im working with phpstorm , it fucking rocks..
git,svn support, out standing performance, clean and fast.

[VladS]

I mean only for html, Netscape Composer could do it, and even though I'm aware that it was a more basic standard set, it's really curious that no editor THAT I KNOW OF could get to something as simple as that. I'd really love to have something like NS Composer only that updated with html4 and html5 standards and some basic CSS, not even complex stuff. I've seen many online services that creates all of these things (by parts), so it's just a question of putting it all together. I mean, something like Dreamweaver but simpler and with way better output.

Yeah, i understand. I doubt there'll be something like that in the near future. I might be wrong though and the OCD talking, but i just have to have clean code, well written, etc... even for html only, it makes a huge difference from all aspects, if you put a clean and short code and a messy tons of tags one.

[mafia_man]

well im working with phpstorm , it fucking rocks..
git,svn support, out standing performance, clean and fast.

The debugger is amazing too.

Set a cookie with javascript and enable listening and it just works.

[LouiseLloyd]

Notepad++ on Windows
Espresso on Mac

[raymor]

Then again, would LOVE to find something, up to date the old Netscape Composer WYSIWYG editor was never reached IMHO, that's what I'd need right now: simple, fast, not overcluttered with retard stuff I'll never use and writing perfectly valid code

Have you tried it recently? It's now called Seamonkey. That's also my favorite browser by far.