PHP IDEs: Part 1

Now the summer’s come and things are slack (got work for a freelancer? “Contact me!”:peter@mapledesign.co.uk) I’m testing out PHP IDEs. I’m after something to make life that little bit easier…

I have a couple of solid criteria which any editor I use must measure up against:

# It must offer code insight to files within PHP’s include_path (eg PEAR libraries). This saves me going online to the manual every time to check the syntax… and if the editor’s smart enough to compile a dictionary of functions/classes/methods in these files rather than rescanning the file every time, so much the better.
# I would really like debugging which can be built into the server. So when something stops working in my home-grown application framework, I can use a debugger to see what’s going on in each file, rather than adding @print@ and @print_r@ statements to many files.

Another criteria for me is the cost. Zend studio is out of reach, unless some kind team member (hello Andi, hello Zeev) gives me a discount. I’m looking at a max of around £100. And if it does Python as well or other languages, so much the better.

An extensive search on Google turned up the following (a bit overdramatic, Google quickly turned up “php-editors”:http://www.php-editors.com/ which supplied most of them). The editors which I have downloaded for testing are:

* “Maguma Workbench”:http://www.maguma.com 2.5.0
* “EnginSite Editor for PHP”:http://www.enginsite.com/php-editor.htm 3.1.2 build 176
* Zend Studio 4.0.2 (out of my budget)
* “PHPEdit”:http://www.phpedit.net 1.2.3.159
* “NuSphere PHPEd”:http://www.nusphere.com 3.3.3 (again out of my budget)
* “PHP Expert Editor”:http://www.ankord.com/phpxedit.html 3.3
* “RapidPHP 2005″:http://www.blumentals.net/rapidphp/ 6.0
* “ActiveState Komodo”:http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/ 3.1 (probably out of budget, but does many languages?)

Noticeable about many of the packages is the distinct lack of instructions. I’m supposed to figure out how to debug apps on the server myself? Mmmm. My intelligence isn’t *that* high
Which warrants a disclaimer: some of these editors may do what I want, and it’s my stupidity which can’t figure out how to do it. You have been warned.

I am installing these editors on a 1.7GHz laptop with 640Mb RAM, running Windows XP Home edition.

I’ve been using PHPEdit for a number of years now, sticking with the last free version 0.8.0.25. While this is OK, it doesn’t fulfil 1 or 2 above. The latest version is much less flaky and satisfies point 1. I liked the speed, better than Maguma. The “New File” templates were cool, although how useful in the long run who knows.

EnginSite Editor seemed to be a real mix of PHP and HTML editing tools. It’s got a swish interface, although I really didn’t understand the painter tool which allowed you to draw boxes and join them with lines… is this a UML design tool? It has a stupid number of templates, some pre-implemented algorithms there which wouldn’t be of use most of the time. It did not seem aware of PHP’s include_path, neither could I find a way to make it. The code complete was also blank on my installation. I will have to try uninstalling and reinstalling (at some point).

Maguma Workbench, like their site, is very pretty. Whoever is their graphic designer should be congratulated. It is however a little overwhelming in the editor, even on my 15″ 1600×1200 screen the icons were huge in the default theme. The registration process was very tricky, but at the third attempt I figured out what was needed - why no instructions?

That’s all I’ve installed so far…