I’m thinking about buying an IDE for PHP/Python programming. I’ve revised my opinion on debugging tools since using the one in PythonWin to understand where one of my scripts is going wrong, and I figure I might find on useful in PHP.
Are there any decent IDEs suitable for both languages? Or do I have to buy one for each? I’m more interested in one for PHP - PythonWin currently does all I need for Python.
I’ve used “PHPEdit”:http://www.phpedit.net now for a few years, but I want something more _finished_ with decent project management features. I trialled “Zend Studio 3″:http://www.zend.com/ and thought it OK, but I prefer a natural Windows interface (although if I move to FreeBSD this would be a plus-point) and I couldn’t get the debugging to work properly.
What do you use, and would you recommend it?
I’m in a little bit of a hurry, as if I decide to go for Zend I can get 22% off the Plus version until the end of the month 
3 comments ↓
“Are there any decent IDEs suitable for both langauges?”
Spelled “languages”.
: )
Oops - thanks Russ, corrected!
IMHO,
There are only 3 options if you want to go for near _true_ IDE.
1. Nusphere phpEd
2. Zend Studio
3. Active State Komodo
I have tried all of them for week each and here are my comments:
Zend Studio is good as it offers auto-complete for php functions, variables and even function names which are included by say ‘include’ statement. It has good enough debugging support and excellent online help linking. Though the heavy weight feature is Code analyzer & Code Profiler. I didn’t try Profiler, though I guess it’s also a killer feature.[See reason below]
But for me, Zend Studio is just out because of such a clumsy IDE done in JAVA. No way I can adjust to different way of using similar window widgets. [I can't dock windows, the peculiar file/open dialog box.... list is endless]
[Btw, I tried Zend Studio 3.0 beta version]
phpEd is best as far as its Windows feel is concerned! You might mistake it for MS IDE! [Absolutely Dockable Windows, Loads very fast...etc.]It has best project management support among the IDEs. Though debugging is slightly inferior to Zend Studio. [One important thing: I haven't tried debugging features that extensively. I am not very comfortable debugging PHP scripts line by line; I think those 'print' statements is what I am best at!]
The only caveat? I couldn’t get used to use ‘Enter key’ to auto complete instead of ‘TAB’ which is Visual Studio’s convention. Also it lacks one more feature which Komodo provides.
Finally we have Active State Komodo - IDE I have fallen in for. It is bit slow in loading (I am on Athlon XP 2.0 Ghz + 512 MB RAM) but once it loads, it just zooms ahead!
It very much feels like a true Windows application. Fantastic auto-complete for variables, functions (It shows small description of function + each parameter is on new line), objects. Though its project management features sucks as folder in ‘project’ are virtual folders and doesn’t map to local folders.
Though the FEATURE, for which I have picked Komodo, is the facility where you can expand and collapse the code blocks. [Just like VS.NET] Say when you have opened file, you can collapse big functions and have complete view of the php file. I simply can’t do without this feature.
Debugging is good enough and it also performs background Syntax checking. [Zend Studio also supports background syntax checking, I am not very sure about phpEd)
Regular expression tool kit is built in. It has really great support for Perl and it supports Python too. (Though I don’t use Python at all!)
Also if you have opened read-only file and made a small change and save it, you don’t need to go to windows explorer and make it writable, you can use ‘Force Save’ option (which will save the file and again make it read-only) which pops up while saving read-only files.
‘Welcome page’ like VS.NET is another time saver for me.
Obviously it supports CVS, but it supports Perforce (it’s a nice Windows Version Control System) as well!
Though, syntax highlighting feature in Komodo absolutely sucks as you can’t save your customized syntax highlighting colors.
So my vote goes for Komodo. It has features which other IDEs have, but it has small but important features which really boost your productivity and I highly recommend it!
JD
P.S.: I don’t mean to say Komodo is THE BEST in general, but if you are coming from Visual Studio background I think you will find it THE
BEST jus like I do.
P.P.S.: I had thought of writing a DETAIL article comparing IDEs with screenshots, matching them feature by feature, but I was never able to spend time on it. I will do it soon!
Disclaimer: I am not associated with Active State, Zend or Nusphere. Above information is derived from usage of the mentioned IDEs.
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