Setting up a dev environment for a new PHP programmer on a Linux Virtual machine.

Question

How can I set a development environment for PHP on my Ubuntu (latest version) Virtual Machine? I'm going to install XAMPP (MySQL, PHP, Apache) and use that as a starting point.

My intention is to eventually use a PHP framework like Kohana once I finish learning the basics.

Can these XAMPP and Kohana be installed side by side? I'm used to installing XAMPP on Windows by clicking next next next; what is the best way to install and set up the dev environment on Linux?

What software can I use to program in PHP/Html/CSS on Linux? I'm coming from a Visual Studio background so intellisense would be VERY welcome.

Answer 1

Check out aptana studio (it's eclipse with php, JavaScript, etc).

I'm not sure what xampp is going to do for you, ubuntu has a very robust LAMP stack built-in, i would just use that.

Answer 2

This may help:

http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/configure-php-environment-ubuntu.html

Answer 3

You don't need XAMPP on Ubuntu, simply set up your LAMP by opening a terminal and typing:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

(Source: Ubuntu Docs)

Closest IDE to Visual Studio is probably Aptana, Eclipse PDT, or Netbeans. Although the classic editors (which the guru's will recommend) VIM and Emacs have auto-complete as well.

Answer 4

On Linux, it's LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP).

Can these XAMPP and Kohana be installed side by side?

Doesn't make any sense. XAMPP (or LAMP) is server software and is used to process web frameworks like Kohana. So Kohana can't run without XAMPP.

Easiest way? From a terminal:

sudo aptitude install php5 mysql-server mysql-client

That will automatically install Apache (dependency of php5), MySQL and PHP.

As for IDEs, a lot of people stand by Netbeans for good reason. It has xdebug and phpunit integration plus a slew of other cool stuff. Check out the Netbeans PHP Blog to see what you can do.