Does PHP have anything like Ruby's irb?

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answers:

+3 Q:

Does PHP have anything like Ruby's irb?

If I want to try out something new in Ruby or Javascript, I love getting immediate feedback from irb or the JS console in Firebug.

Is there anything like that for PHP?

+5 A:

Yes, there is a way: php -a, -a means interactive shell

Dan Sosedoff 2010-03-08 19:39:50

+1 A:

Are you looking for something like FirePHP?

edit: misread question, leaving answer here for when/if you decide to debug from within the browser :)

chelmertz 2010-03-08 19:40:14

+2 A:

php -a is an option, but it does not work on Windows.

For Windows, you may want to try phpa-norl, available at http://www.fischerlaender.net/php/phpa-norl

sutch 2010-03-08 19:53:15

Haven't tried php-norl yet, but "does not work on Windows" was useful info for me. To expound on that: it starts up and acts like it's working on Windows, but you can't really do anything (like echo a variable). It does work on Linux, though. It's not as great as irb, but... :) It's helpful. Thanks.

Nathan Long 2010-03-08 20:05:51