The best PHP editor for Vista [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67729

Question

Some points to consider when answering my question:

  1. I'm new to PHP, coming from a Windows / .NET background
  2. My PHP dev enviroment consists of a Vista x64 / IIS7 with FastCGI / PHP5
  3. I need something light-weight
  4. The following features would be nice
    • Syntax highlighting and colorization
    • Code formating
    • Auto-completion
Was it helpful?

Solution

Eclipse with PDT

OTHER TIPS

While I was working on Windows I always favored Notepad++. Its very lightweight, but also doesn't have a lot of the IDE level features you might be used to from .NET land.

PHP ED is the by far the best i find. i've tried pretty much everything out there. and this is the best php editor. i love linux...but i keep on windows because of PHP ED.

http://www.nusphere.com/products/phped.htm http://www.nusphere.com/products/tour.htm

its fast! and and it very full featured.

it has:

auto code completion, build in database client, built in ssh(command line prompt), sftp, ftp etc support. (mount drives), remote and local debugger, code explorer, framework recognition, extensive language color coding options for multiple languages, html form builders, code formatting. the list goes on.

hands down PHPED is the top php editor.

there is also great forum support for this editor as well.

I would highly suggest the Aptana Studio, for your enviroment. More info is here.

And a Review is Here.

It has to be Netbeans for me. Its got all the IDE features you could need and it has the added benefit of running on Mac/PC and Linux so you can use it regardless of platform. Its great features include built in support for Unit testing, debugging and mysql (more info here)

gvim!

I swear by EditPad Pro. It is lightweight with syntax colouring and code formatting, but it does not include auto completion (which personally I don't use anyway). It does have an amazing search function too.

  • jEdit is a great editor, but you need to install some plugins before it's at its best.

    • It's got great syntax highlighting (esp. with the Editor Scheme plugin)
    • It has excellent remote-file editing support with the FTP plugin
    • It has the easiest-to-use Diff tool I've used
    • It's java-based, and a little heavy on resources, but it's cross-platform.
    • (The plugins I install are: BufferList, CtagsSidekick (along with ctags), Editor Scheme, FTP (remote editing FTW!), JDiff, JTidy, PHPParser, Sessions, SideKick, TaskList, XML and XML Indenter.)

  • I've recently started using Komodo Edit (The free version of Komodo IDE), and I'm really liking it.

    • It's fully cross-platform (because it's based on XUL).
    • It's got good syntax highlighting and error correction.
    • It's got really good code completion & browsing.
    • It's also nice to be able to specify a URL to preview your current file that is not necessarily the path of the file itself - so you can edit a class file and preview it using a test harness very easily.
    • If I was starting out, this would be my recommendation.

  • A lot of people love Eclipse with PDT, but I've never really used it. May be worth checking out, but apparently it's relatively resource-hungry.

I agree with Sam: Eclipse with PDT is the best for what you want:

  • Syntax highlighting and colorization
  • Code formating
  • Auto-completion

Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to install it and use those features. I've installed it on my Vista laptop and it worked fine:

Install a PHP Development Environment with Eclipse PDT, Apache 2.2, PHP 5, MySQL 5, and phpMyAdmin Using XAMPP Lite

I've always used Zend Studio and I couldn't live without it. Break points and tracing are magic. If you have complex code, just execute line by line, checking that values and logic are as expected. How do people develop large applications with edit only programs like Notepad?

I'm a big fan of Zend Studio... its designed for PHP and I just can't live without the IDE features. Alternatives are ActiveState's Komodo IDE

IDE: NetBeans for PHP [PHP, HTML, CSS - Auto-completion, Insert Getters/Setters] u dont have that in Eclipse (I tried Eclipse, and Zend Studio - and NB is better by a mile)

EDITOR: Notepad++

Zeus has support for the PHP language (i.e. syntax highlighting, code folding, smart indenting, auto completion etc).

It also has bunch of IDE like features including project/workspace management, intergrated source control, class browsing etc.

alt text
(source: zeusedit.com)

Dreamweaver does everything you listed, but isn't very lightweight. I like it because of the ability to have it write a lot of the simple HTML and CSS for me. It also has built in docs on javascript, html, php, and much much more. I would definitely suggest checking it out.

EditPlus is very lightweight, and meets all of your criteria except for the auto-complete.

I like VS.PHP because I like to work inside of Visual Studio.

It costs $99, but seems to work fairly well for my purposes.

http://www.jcxsoftware.com/vs.php

I second Notepad++, it's lightweight, fast and works very well. When you enable word completion in the options it's a great support while coding (there are function completion files for several languages available, too). Also take a look at plugins.

Alternatively, use a full-fledged IDE. These are worth a look:

  • Zend Studio for Eclipse
  • Eclipse with PDT
  • Netbeans 6.5

Before I moved to developing mainly in C# I did quite a bit of PHP development using Notepad++. It's advantages are:

  • Lightweight.
  • Free.
  • Highlighting of other instances of selected text in the same document.
  • Wide variety of available plugins.
  • Regular releases.
  • Find-In-files.
  • Function Completion.
  • Obviously not tied to PHP development.

UEStudio is indispensable for me - it's my main killer-app stopping me from switching to Ubuntu full time. Having used eclipse at my previous job, I found it a bit of a resource hog and the interface was awful (I'll often have 20-30+ files open at once and the tab interface didn't work that well, for me at least).

Strictly speaking UES isn't a PHP IDE (you won't get integrated debugging), but it ticks all your boxes.

The only downside is that it isn't free. Their website has a 45 day free trial (no signup or anything), which will be definitely long enough to let you know if it's for you.

I've enjoyed using PhpED, mostly because I just started learning PHP and having the debugger to step through my code and teach me what I'm doing wrong really helps. But it's not particularly lightweight, and I imagine that after getting my chops I'd move more to a text-editor solution.

Visual Studio in combination with VS.Php is the ultimate tool ;)

It even supports debugging with IIS and is MS Certified.

Vim Vim Vim Vim Vim VIM!
Although I've just started trying out Eclipse with PDT and it seems quite nice. Other than that I've never been able to find an editor that 100% meets my needs unfortunately :( I must be far to picky.

gVim on windows!

But I haven't gone beyond basic edit/search use. Would like to dig more on Vim...

Delphi for PHP is a good PHP editor. It isn't however in the lightweight free category. It has all your features plus a visual WYSIWYG page designer.

Check out the feature list, it is pretty impressive. A lot of screen shots. If you are coming from a rich .NET development background this will really be familiar to you.

PHP Designer is pretty solid. I found it to be lighter-weight than Eclipse, has built-in support for TortoiseSVN, PHPDocumenter and some other utilities. It's not free, but it's reasonably priced - $60, I think.

Lightweight is not: Dreamweaver, Aptana, Netbeans, Eclipse

It really depends on what you are doing, if you arent using OOP then you dont need a full blown IDE.... same with debugging, etc..

Lightweight, debugging, syntax coloring, etc.... I would try PHP Editor 2008

I have used it before and loved it... but allways go back to Programmers Notepad or my new friend e-TextEditor which is a copy of Textmate from the mac.

Since you are new to PHP anyway you arent going to be able to tell the difference between half of these.... :/

E Text editor

I use UltraEdit, EditPlus, Notepad++, and Notepad2. All are light weight. UltraEdit does do code completion I think... I'm not really sure as I don't use it.

UltraEdit is my main editor.

EditPlus used to be my main editor (I keep it around for regex search/replace when UltraEdit's regex support doesn't work right).

Notepad2 I have associated with most code file types (php, js, css, etc) for quick editing while browsing files in Windows Explorer.

Notepad++ I use for quick editing, similar to the way I use Notepad2, but I switch to Notepad++ if I need to open up multiple files from the same project. Yeah, I should probably just open them in UltraEdit if I'm gonna do that, but for some reason I don't.

Just the way I work. I'm weird I guess?

WeBuilder/Rapid PHP seem to cover your requirements nicely, and even support some rudimentary debugging.

I tried, but have not extensively used, phpCoder - it's very nice. The only reason I didn't purchase was because I already had WeBuilder.

Finally, I have used Komodo IDE, which is outstanding, but I'm not sure it can be called lightweight. They also offer a free, open source version - Komodo Edit - which does not include debugging, but I believe meets the requirements you list.

I've recently tried phpDesigner 2008, which seems to be a good IDE. However, I haven't used it long enough to give a fair verdict.

Edit: Strike that, I've given up on it. Search doesn't work, the auto-complete and error detection is obnoxious and it has some window focus bugs that drive me crazy. I'm switching to NuSphere PhpED.

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