What are some pros and cons of the various PHP IDEs?

Question

This isn't a "Which IDE should I use?" question and I'm not interested in text editors no matter how awesome they may be (and I don't consider either vim or emacs to be an IDE so... unless you have a couple of days to explain precisely and in full gory detail how to fully configure, say vim, to work as a PHP IDE let's just stick to the big GUI IDEs)

I've extensively used Zend Studio and Eclipse PDT and am currently trying out NetBeans. I have never used NuSphere.

As an example of the sort of feedback I'm loking for here is a comment about NetBeans: One thing I like about NetBeans is it has some nice functionality like "Find Usages" which lets you highlight something (a class, method, variable, etc.) and see how many times it is used and in which locations.

Here is one About Zend: One thing I don't like about Zend Studio is it's price. On the other hand, its integration with Zend Framework is quite potent for someone who uses ZF quite often. Since I make real money using this tool the price isn't a deal breaker... just not preferred.

So, any good intel on what is good/bad about these IDEs? I'm on Mac and Linux so some of the good Windows only options are not feesible in my case, though others reading this may like to hear about them. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I love ZEND obviously they have a massive advantage in developing a PHP IDE, as ZEND is PHP, but your right the price sucks. One of my favorite features of Zend is the F5, to see if any errors are produced and that the code is putting out the correct output.
I used PHPDesigner for a long time before I could afford Zend, the intelisence is good, and the syntax highlighting is slightly better, IMO, then Zend's, and I love it's print feature, it will print the code with the highlighting, and line numbers, and filenames on each page, which makes it incredibly useful when you just cant find that error, and to have paper copies. Not to mention that there is a free version.

Answer 2

I'm using netbeans PHP 6.5beta. It's still beta, but really impressive.

• instant deployment to local test site
• great code completion and help
• multiple run configurations
• easy remote deployment
• html, css and javascript support
• debugging

Answer 3

I use Komodo Edit, and here is why:

• Free/Open-Source
• Autocomplete and calltips
• Project management
• Support for almost all major (and some non-major) languages
• Firefox-like Addon/Extensions
• Macros
• Zend Framework integration
• See the complete feature list...

Answer 4

I use NuSphere PHPEd http://www.nusphere.com/ which is excellent (though it is windows only - their website suggests there are mac and linux versions, but these seem to be the windows version running on a VM of some kind).

The text editor is good, with a lot of customisation/autocomplete/syntax colouring etc available.

The integrated debugger works really well, with a good overall IDE. There are even things like database browsers built in, so you can get on with most stuff right from the IDE.

Ignore their claims that their special discounted price is going to end tomorrow. It has been ending tomorrow for at least 2 years now.

Answer 5

Zend Studio code completion and debugging abilities for PHP are the best of what's available. It can also interface with the Zend Platform if you have that for online profiling and debugging. Version 6 (Studio for eclipse) however is unstable to say the least - I'm still using studio 5.5.

Answer 6

1. debugging
2. debugging
3. debugging

How anyone can develop serious sized apps without good debugging is beyond me. When you are reliant on third party libraries etc. sometimes the only way is to step through it line by line and seeing where it breaks. I say this with feeling having just spent 4.5 hours last night dealing with a code update in CakePHP breaking all the unit tests for a project I've been working on for months.

So, sorry to be hard about it, but I wouldn't consider any IDE that didn't have superb remote debugging - probably with XDebug. IDEs with good debugging include (as far as I know):

• Komodo IDE - my personal choice
• Eclipse
• Zend Studio
• Maguma

Oh, and as for prices of IDEs. I love open source software for the freedom as much as the price. I develop on Linux, for deployment to LAMP stack using predominately free software. However, as someone who makes their living writing code, I have NO problem whatsoever shelling out for the right tools to do the job. A couple hundred $$s on an IDE is small beer if it will save you months of time.

Answer 7

I've recently begun to use Aptana Studio Community Edition, the primary reason being its code complete abilities within Javascript, CSS, HTML, and PHP. Before this I used phpDesigner 2008. The other reason is price. Aptana has what I need in the freeware version, and if I need more I can pay.

I used Zend for awhile, but the price made me choke as did the laughably short trial period. I found phpDesigner 2008 to be quite good, but once I saw Aptana I questioned why I should pay $40 a year to get what I could have for free in Aptana.

I'm also one of the minimalist programmers who doesn't care for huge feature sets, but I do like syntax highlighting and intelligent code completion. My only complaint about Aptana is that it has no support for PHPTAL templates, and thus breaks on entities, and that it is written in Java. I prefer IDEs that aren't written in an interpreted language for their speed. However, Aptana is quite efficient and even works on my old 1.6ghz work laptop.

Give it a try. It can't hurt to download it and test it for free. Integrated debugging is a part of the package.

And for those who like Eclipse, well, Aptana is built on top of Eclipse and is really just a specialized version of Eclipse for web development. I have yet to try the full Eclipse studio myself.

Answer 8

I use the PDT from http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt

my setup consists of the following:

• PDT (http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt)
• ZendDebugger.so for debugging (from http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt)
• Aptana plugin for JS, CSS, XML etc (from Aptana.com)
• SVN plugin

Here's why I like an IDE as opposed to a text editor

1. code navigation. i like to be able to use a keystroke to get into the definition of the function/method/var my cursor is on
2. code completion
3. docblock completion (starting the /** pattern will trigger the plugin to stub the docblocks)
4. nice syntax hilighting
5. project & class outlines
6. quick file launcher/searcher
7. index project text for fast "grep"
8. and, of course, step thru debugging

The PDT + Aptana + Zend Debugger gives me all that and helps with my productivity quite a bit