PHP developing suite? [closed]

Question

I use Visual Studio to develop C#, C++ for about 10 years.

Is there a free or inexpensive development platform similar to Visual Studio Express (maybe even a plugin for Visual Studio!) that would allow me to develop and test my code?

I've got a number of PHP books, but I'd like to test the things I've learned before tossing them out onto a live website!

Answer 1

Eclipse PDT is great for those who are familiar with visual studio. It integrates with Zend Debugger, has an integrated browser for rendering pages, and allows for code-completion (IntelliSense) and class-refactoring.

http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/

Answer 2

* * * UPDATE * * *

Now that the new 3.0 version is out I figured I should update this answer. After 10 months of using PHPStorm on a constant basis, I can safely say that it is the best software investment I have ever made. I have caught so many mistakes before they ever happened due to the amazing live inspections and syntax checking. I have customized my editor more than any other will allow, including an awesome dark scheme, a ton of live-templates, keyboard shortcuts for just about everything, custom inspection profile settings, lots of templates for Kohana framework, etc. The end result is that my productivity has soared. My code is cleaner because of the various refactoring tools which I frequently use. In general, my coding skills have taken several notches up in large part due to such a friendly environment. Now v3 seems even faster than v2. The old Eclipse-based IDEs are so gummy compared to this - the discrepancy in speed and stability is astounding. I use SVN locally and I feel the integration is super-tight and rock solid - I stopped using Tortoise SVN altogether because everything happens inside the IDE. Also, I frequently use the deployment tools, which are also very nice. For example, you can quickly compare a live version with a local version and merge discrepancies, etc. And you can map many folders to the remote server so you can make a one-keystroke upload per each random file that you're working on. This is just an all-around great tool.

One more things - Jetbrains seems to be a very impressive company. I'm not usually so loyal to a company, but they guys are rock stars. All I know about Jetbrains is that they're Russian and they can really crank stuff out. They come out with updates all the time, supporting new trends like COFFEE and LESS, etc. All very impressive.

I hope this helps any aspiring PHP developers!

---Old answer below:---

PHPStorm (the new 2.0 version) is insanely awesome -- very customizable, very fast, very SMART. Get a WAMP setup going, and get the debugger working. Highlights:

• You can setup logical locations of files and map them against physical locations (ie, great for setting up whatever flavor of PHP framework you're using).
• The code completion is outstanding, and worked out of the box with the Kohana 3 framework (never seen an IDE do this on the first try!).
• The PHP refactoring alone is worth the price of $100 for a single developer.
• I have also been using the PHP and JS debugger like crazy... I setup my own hotkeys for STEP-OVER and STEP-INTO, etc, to match my Visual Studio hotkeys and I'm just FLYING compared to working in Aptana (eclipse-based).
• I haven't yet gotten into the automated testing, but that's integrated too.
• Oh yes, SVN is also integrated, and seems rock solid. It also comes with a built in "history" mechanism for tracking micro-changes to files.

After owning this for 2 weeks it's already paid for itself several times over, and is worth much more than I paid for it. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... at least worth the time to fuss with the trial version.

Answer 3

For Free I'd try NetBeans and a WAMP Server

Answer 4

PhpStorm, but it's not a free program.

Answer 5

There's Netbeans' PHP IDE and Eclipse PDT.

Answer 6

I was considering PHPStorm when I was moving away from Aptana. However, I ended up choosing Phped for one reason. PHPStorm won’t let you open project files that are on a network drive. My particular dev environment consists of a Linux VM with a Samba share. I attach the Samba share in Win7 as a network drive. Phped allows me to add to the code from the network share to my project. PHPStorm does not. That’s a deal breaker for me. From what I’ve read, that behavior seems to be by design. Looks to be a great IDE otherwise, but not for me.

Answer 7

I'd definitely go for JetBrains PhpStorm too. Fantastic IDE. You can download their EAP versions from here. They try to release new EAP version every week.