Hi all,

I think that most ATK users are professional PHP developers, which mean you make your living by writing PHP codes

I would like know what PHP IDE are you using. What are good and bad features of your PHP IDE?

I've seen the following thread on this topic but it was 2 years ago.
http://forum.achievo.org/forum/viewtopi ... hlight=ide

I am currently using SciTE http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html, which is a good lighweight open-source code editor with many languages (PHP as well) add-on templates.
Good:
- Lightweight (830K) and fast in editing
- Code highlight and folding for lanaguage templates added.
- Auto code-complete
- Customizable properties script file
- Many free language templates available
- PHP syntax hint (via a free template)
Bad:
- Not a full feature IDE
- No object browser
- Don't know how to fully integrate API help.

I am looking at a PHP IDE (PDT) under Eclipe http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/
Anyone has actual experience of using the PDT?

Just thinking if ATK API is embedded with a popular PHP IDE, it will make ATK framework accessible to a wide circle of PHP developers and hence be more popular.

Your thought and advice are welcome.

Benny

Right Station
Web Solution

Hello Benny,

I recently revisited this issue:

Currently stuck with Zend IDE 5.5.1 and won't upgrade. I don't like eclipse, though it's not for lack of trying to like eclipse. Eclipse just wore me down after 3 or 4 weeks.

I use it as you suggested, for the object explorer when you open a file, also ease of use of SFTP, but this is changing as a differentiator feature with WinSCP being able to open in any local editor.

Zend IDE can pretty much handle PHP embedded in anything, such as *.html files (an odd choice for PHP include files you sometimes find in frameworks). This one code terrain has always confused all other PHP editors.

As I said I will not move to IDE as they always end up wasting my time. After dumping Eclipse I tried Netbeans again, however also wasted my time.

My current editor list:
- jEdit
- Notepad++
- emacs
- textpad
- vim

And as I mentioned WinSCP to remote edit.

When Zend 5.5.1 finally stops working in 5 years I'll finally get off IDEs.

HTH,
Rich

I pretty much stick to the general purpose editor scene, so I'll make recommendations that focus on that.

A few years back I picked up a copy of Macromedia Homesite+ (Adobe sells it now for about $100) and I use it exclusively when I'm on a Windows machine (I generally do local development with a copy of xampp running.)
I like Homesite over most other editors.

If I'm working on my macbook, I use a copy of Smultron, a copy of Hyperedit or (when I'm doing collaborative work/debugging with other people) SubEtha Edit.

I've yet to find a good collaborative editor for use on Windows--a disappointing lack when you have a small team, or even a pair of coders working together

I m using homesite since nearly 10 years...tryed some others...
eclipse and zend íde are making me nervous- because they are hooked on Java and thats a pretty bad feeling on windows using a low to middle class computer.
I need it native (well coded C++ windows appl.)...Homesite has all I need, codesnipps and so on.
Also a good idea for fast development on WAMP with XAMPP
- http://www.navicat.com/(never did faster the db-admin-stuff, forget phpMyAdmin )
- http://www.httpwatch.com/ (my second must have on windows)
- Firebug-extension for Firefox (useful for html/javascript-debugging)
...and of course the typical remote tools Putty+WinScp sometimes WS_FTP, MS RemoteDesktop

c u st.

I use PS Pad (http://www.pspad.com/en/)

Straight from their site

Hello Benny,
I use Eclipse PHP IDE (PDT).
Regards

Hi Gourmellet,

Could you share your experience of PDT? Any good and bad?

Did you use PDT for ATK development?

Benny

Hi,
Eclipse PDT is the only PHP IDE I ever used and I am rather happy with it :

It's free.

It helps for coding : code assist, code folding, code formatting, syntax guide, syntax coloring.
Task tags (todo, fixme).

I like outlines efficiency :
- project level : directory structure in which I included atk, I can directly see module and classes, functions inside
- module level : with folding options.
- php functions

Search and search/replace functionnalities are very powerful (project level).
Module comparing is very useful.

I developped all my application using eclipse (about 150 nodes).

But I am not a professionnal developper and I think I miss a lot of interesting functionnalities in Eclipse.

Eclipse and Firebug are my two main tools (in addition to print_r () and die() !!! ).

Hope I answer your questions and I can still answer if you need more infomations.

Regards

Hi Guy,

Thanks. Your sharing is informative.

I've tried PSPad as suggested by jgarifuna. PSPad looks promising and it has a good code explorer like an object browser. It is also fast and responsive.

One concern about Eclipse is that it is a bulky Java appl, which is slow and memory hungry. Do you have any speed or memory concern in using PDT, which is on top of Eclipse.

You have developed ATK with 150 nodes. I think it is a fairly big appls or you use a lot of lookup tables. Interesting. Would like let us know what application are you working on

Thanks

Benny

Hi Benny,

I have no performance problems with eclipse, I find it very efficient , even when it searches large amount of files.

I just had a look on psPad, it seems to be alike.

Concerning my application : I am very involved in a sick people association and wrote this to manage associations : people, organisations, addresses, contacts between people, organisations meetings, contracts, documents, fees, finances, domain managing, ... a kind of erp for associations ...

You may have a look on the wiki I started to write : www.wikistoma.org/wiki in french.
Ask google to translate it from french to english and you will have (maybe) an idea.

Regards

I like to use Codelobster IDE very much.