What IDE do you use?
- Thread starter Robust
- Start date
Robust
Well-known member
Well, I only have a Mac, sadly PhpED is Windows only. I have a paid copy of PhpStorm already too. It looked relatively interesting, but I don't see it coming to Mac anytime soon. Quite happy with PhpStorm though, even if there was a Mac version I'm not sure if I'd want to switch. IntelliJ was always a good IDE when I was into Java development, and PhpStorm has a familiar feel to it. Easy to work with, all around it's perfect for me and it just works.
For someone who needs advice choosing an IDE, I'd definitely recommend PhpStorm, and PhpED looks like something that should be given a shot as well. Can't say much about the others, never liked NetBeans or Eclipse, but I don't think anyone uses them either. Zend Studio, I don't know anyone that uses it at all. I tried a trial of it and just hated it.
Luke F
Well-known member
I've changed the layout a lot from the default:
I keep going back to PhpStorm to give it a try but just can't get used to the feel of it. It's like Visual Studio with Resharper - really nice extra functionality but noticeably less responsive
Robust
Well-known member
@Luke Foreman PhpED looks really nice from these screenshots, arguably better looking than PhpStorm, really reminds me of Visual Studio 2010, and I liked the look of that. At the end of the day, an IDE is just meant to increase productivity imo. If you work better and faster using Notepad++ and it increases productivity more than a feature-fleshed IDE, then that's the best option. All about personal preference. There's no perfect IDE. I figured that out when I thought a specific IDE could make you a better programmer, boy was that a long time ago.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
I've had PHPStorm for about a year, but end up doing most of my editing and exploring in vim on the server. This may be irrational on my part, but I haven't worked on any large projects yet and unfortunately, I seem to have caught the vim disease:
http://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/338tx5/vim/cqiyma2
http://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/338tx5/vim/cqiyma2
Marcus
Well-known member
Vim is superior for editing code. I wonder if there is a webpage explaining Vims ability for exploring code as this is what I do most of the time.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Would either of these be like what you are looking for?
http://usevim.com/2013/01/18/tags/ (see this also)
http://majutsushi.github.io/tagbar/
If so, there is a PHP-centric tag generator and tagbar plugin.
I don't know if you're following neovim, but it's a significant refactoring of vim's code. It's updated enough that one can run an bash within it and it's already mature enough that some people are using it as their day to day editor. The community is excited enough about it that a donation drive raised $2600 per month to hire the main dev to work on it two days a week. I mention it because Neovim will be better at handling external processes (its plugins run as external processes, for example), so this should hopefully help with running programs like ctags.
Finally, if those aren't what you're looking for, here are some other vim addons from a forum post:
http://usevim.com/2013/01/18/tags/ (see this also)
http://majutsushi.github.io/tagbar/
If so, there is a PHP-centric tag generator and tagbar plugin.
I don't know if you're following neovim, but it's a significant refactoring of vim's code. It's updated enough that one can run an bash within it and it's already mature enough that some people are using it as their day to day editor. The community is excited enough about it that a donation drive raised $2600 per month to hire the main dev to work on it two days a week. I mention it because Neovim will be better at handling external processes (its plugins run as external processes, for example), so this should hopefully help with running programs like ctags.
Finally, if those aren't what you're looking for, here are some other vim addons from a forum post:
- phpcomplete: improved completion, knows about builtins and annotations.
- syntastic: checks your code on save/invocation and reports error.
- neocomplete + ultisnips: snippets and more advanced completion, not PHP-specific but still useful. Requires a Lua-enabled Vim build.
- I could also mention ctrlp-funky, which adds (ctags-less) function-jumping to CtrlP. Nice and simple.
Last edited:
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
I think I have recovered from the vim disease. I just don't code enough at all these days to make it worth it. Still use it on the server, of course.
I'm trying to hack together a quick mod, though, and need to explore the codebase a bit. Can anyone recommend a free (not trialware) full IDE? Plenty of space on my HD. I just want a quick learning curve and to be able to track down method definitions super quickly. I know PHPStorm is the best, but I want free since I won't use it often.
I think that many years ago Kier recommended a Zend suite. Is that still an option?
CarpCharacin
Well-known member
Is Atom any good?
That would be Zend Studio. Certainly far from free. Probably more expensive than PhpStorm but I've not looked at it for a while.
The free equivalent would be Eclipse with PDT http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/. I'm not sure of the exact order of things, but Zend Studio is a fork of Eclipse PDT I think.
As a free, open source text editor, yes. I actually use it as my text editor when I'm making file edits on a server. Pretty good support out of the box for syntax highlighting, auto completion, etc. I think it can be extended with various plugins for more enhanced support.
CarpCharacin
Well-known member
I use nano for making file edits on my server.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Yeah, I use that a lot, too, but I'm looking for a bonafide IDE.
IIRC, Sublime, (nano), and Atom are just text editors, and PhpStorm/JetBrains are trialware/paid. (I tried PhpStorm, but my subscription lapsed and I don't need an IDE often enough to reup.)
It looks like the only option, then, for a free full IDE is Eclipse PDT, right?
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Much respect, but I'm really looking for something that reads an entire PHP project in and understands PHP syntax well enough that I can click on a method and be taken to its definition, even if the definition is in a file in a different folder that I haven't even opened yet.
Some context: my background is in technical and windows programming (C, Mathematica, Matlab and Autohotkey are the languages I have the most experience with). I absolutely love how the open nature of PHP software encourages people to just jump in. However, given my limited experience with web programming, I've found hacking on XF to be very frustrating. I've railed in the past about the lack of dedicated developer documentation - I think that with just a five page up-to date writeup on the main concepts needed to hack XF, I could hit the ground running. But the response I get is "read the sources, they're beautiful."
Okay, fine, I'll read the sources. But I want an IDE that allows me to click on a method and be taken to its definition. So it's IDE or bust from the perspective of this OB (original thread bumper).
Plus, we've all got our favorite text editor. I'm a Notepad/vim guy myself.
So it looks like Eclipse PDT is the best option if you don't want to pay $199-$119 every year but want a bonafide PHP IDE?
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