Php code editor - any recomendations

Hi there,

I have been using Dreamweaver 7 (2004 MX) for the editing of my PHP code. I
have heard that Dreamweaver 8 sis better for code but there are lots of
other negative things I have read which put me off.

Is there a recommended editor out there that allows me to edit my code much
like one can in visual studio. Might not be as comprehensive as VS but
anything similar would be a bonus

Even the ability to check for typos would be handy rather then uploading to
server first. Ideally as cheap as possible but I don't mind paying if it
does make my life easier.

Thanks

Personally i would recommend VS.Php (read more on it at
http://www.jcxsoftware.com/ )

complete IDE with local and remote debugging of the php code (provided you
have the specific extension installed on the remote server)

syntax highlighing, intellisense, and a lot of other features.


"David Smithz" <dave1900@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:UgzGh.12462$I46.5442@text.news.blueyonder.co. uk...
> Hi there,
>
> I have been using Dreamweaver 7 (2004 MX) for the editing of my PHP code.
> I have heard that Dreamweaver 8 sis better for code but there are lots of
> other negative things I have read which put me off.
>
> Is there a recommended editor out there that allows me to edit my code
> much like one can in visual studio. Might not be as comprehensive as VS
> but anything similar would be a bonus
>
> Even the ability to check for typos would be handy rather then uploading
> to server first. Ideally as cheap as possible but I don't mind paying if
> it does make my life easier.
>
> Thanks
>
>

"David Smithz" <dave1900@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:UgzGh.12462$I46.5442@text.news.blueyonder.co. uk...
> Hi there,
>
> I have been using Dreamweaver 7 (2004 MX) for the editing of my PHP code.
> I have heard that Dreamweaver 8 sis better for code but there are lots of
> other negative things I have read which put me off.

I have DW8 and although it's good for integrating scripts with the web page,
and can do syntax highlighting, but no syntax checking or debugging.

> Is there a recommended editor out there that allows me to edit my code
> much like one can in visual studio. Might not be as comprehensive as VS
> but anything similar would be a bonus

I evaluated several freeware PHP IDE's last week, and Eclipse was my choice.
I'm familiar with Visual Studio, and it is in the same league. The syntax
checking and debug support are good. It will work with XDebug either
remotely, or locally with your own PHP install, but this is not necessary if
all you want is the syntax checking.

I did not check out all of the available IDE's. I also looked at PHPEdit,
tsWebEditor, Light PHP Edit, and devPHP. I advise you to check each one out
for 30 minutes or so. You may find you like the simplicity of one of these
better than Eclipse, particularly if you are not interested in XDebug.

Eclipse PHP Project (PDT)
http://www.eclipse.org/php

Bug 169408 - Support for XDebug:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=169408
(XDebug took me two days to set up. If you do this, be sure to locate the
pdf with detailed install instructions)

Many thanks to Iciban, who first supplied me with these links.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

Thanks for the input Mike and Steve.

I tried out the VS one Steve suggested and was excited by the Visual Studio
interface (although I've not used one since VB6, but it looks the same but
better).

However, I did not seem to be able to find a view which showed my HTML llike
in the same way dreamweaver does. I do find this very useful and would not
want to sacrafise it.

I like the sound of your suggestions Mike. Does eclipse have the HTML design
view like Dreamweaver (I have just installed the trial for Dreamweaver 8 and
do say the code editing looks much better - but there are many bad reviews
about the product generally).

As I don't know what XDebug I guess I don't use it. But maybe it is
something I should be using.

Bascally over the next few months I'm going to be doing a lot of PHP coding
and I want to make my life as easy as possible. Previously I have just used
Dreameweaver 7 and TextPad (text editor) and uploaded to server to test.

Any more hints / feedback welcome.

Thanks

first impressions of eclipse, looks good but have to confess compared to the
VS one, it's a read. I guess that's the disadvantage of opensource sometimes
is that you really have to get a good understanding before you can get
going.

But I will persevere when I have more time. If this has code management
facilities as well to allow for change management of code this is a definite
bonus, but also put off by your two days in getting XDebug configured. Your
posting was the first I had heard of it but that is quite a high investment
of time to get something installed.

Anyway, research continues.

thanks again and more info welcome.

"David Smithz" <dave1900@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ByKGh.12878$I46.574@text.news.blueyonder.co.u k...
>
> Thanks for the input Mike and Steve.
>
> I tried out the VS one Steve suggested and was excited by the Visual
> Studio interface (although I've not used one since VB6, but it looks the
> same but better).
>
> However, I did not seem to be able to find a view which showed my HTML
> llike in the same way dreamweaver does. I do find this very useful and
> would not want to sacrafise it.

About all you can do is open it in a browser. I don't believe there is
anything like DW's design view, and I plan to continue using DW for page
layout, and Eclipse for the php development.

> I like the sound of your suggestions Mike. Does eclipse have the HTML
> design view like Dreamweaver

No - everything is code view.

> (I have just installed the trial for Dreamweaver 8 and do say the code
> editing looks much better - but there are many bad reviews about the
> product generally).

It's the tool people love to hate - better than FrontPage, and there's not
much else out there. I skipped from DW 3 to DW 8, so can't really compare
the code and design view functinality with DW7. It crashes once an hour or
so - irritating but not fatal. It works well for designing web pages and
assigning actions to form items, hotspots, etc. The file access -
synchronizing to the server, etc, is klunky. Often the synchronization
command decides to simply update all of my files (1000's of them!) and
usually fumbles the ball in the process, requirng me to start over and nurse
it along. DW3 was the same, maybe a little worse.

> As I don't know what XDebug I guess I don't use it. But maybe it is
> something I should be using.

XDebug is a php debugger that can runs as an extension to php. It be used
remotely (provided you have admin control over the php on that system, or
on your local system, using php.exe. XDebug comes with a simple command
line debug client that allows you to set breakpoints, examining variables,
stack trace, etc. Most of the PHP IDE's I mentioned connect to XDebug. I
find it very useful as a learning tool - for example you can open up the
$_SERVER array and see what's there, watch strings being parsed. All that
good stuff.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

indeed there is no WYSIWYG view for VS.Php we are trying to keep the
structure and general architecture as close to the Visual Studio IDE as
possible.

however there is remote debugging that you can use, you can specify the path
to a local server you run on your machine, and use the remote debugging to
see how one page would behave once completely processed by the php
executable.

XDebug is a PHP Debugger, generally working as an extension you can add into
your PHP Configuration, just like DBG

We are working on providing support for XDebug in future releases though. So
users will have a choice between DBG (actually supported) and XDebug
depending of their choice of debugger.

There is also a Deployment module with in VS.Php.

it will not synchronize copies from remote to local like dreaweaver does,
but it is used to upload a project. it works in such a way that when you
open the project and do the first deploy, it will update all files present
in your project, but after that, whenever you do subsequent deploys it will
only update the files you modified since last time you performed a deployed
within your work session.

It also comes with something i consider rather useful and time saving, which
is called PHP Language References. if you take common IDEs such as Zend
Studio, dreamweaver and others, they will provide all content within the
intellisense (this is the dropdown like window that popup when you start
typing a command). With VS.Php you have the ability to limit the content of
this intellisense to what you want inserted in there either as a Language
Reference (build-in reference files taken from the content of the PHP
manual), or user references (you can supply you own files to be inserted as
intellisense content, such as custom functions or classes that you wrote).

If you have any suggestions feel free to register on the website i mentioned
in my first post, or just let me know in there and i will pass the
suggestion around to the programmer's team.

Hope this shed some lights :)

Steve.


"David Smithz" <dave1900@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ByKGh.12878$I46.574@text.news.blueyonder.co.u k...
>
> Thanks for the input Mike and Steve.
>
> I tried out the VS one Steve suggested and was excited by the Visual
> Studio interface (although I've not used one since VB6, but it looks the
> same but better).
>
> However, I did not seem to be able to find a view which showed my HTML
> llike in the same way dreamweaver does. I do find this very useful and
> would not want to sacrafise it.
>
> I like the sound of your suggestions Mike. Does eclipse have the HTML
> design view like Dreamweaver (I have just installed the trial for
> Dreamweaver 8 and do say the code editing looks much better - but there
> are many bad reviews about the product generally).
>
> As I don't know what XDebug I guess I don't use it. But maybe it is
> something I should be using.
>
> Bascally over the next few months I'm going to be doing a lot of PHP
> coding and I want to make my life as easy as possible. Previously I have
> just used Dreameweaver 7 and TextPad (text editor) and uploaded to server
> to test.
>
> Any more hints / feedback welcome.
>
> Thanks
>

Try ConTEXT its free and you can download loads of highlighters for
many different languages

http://www.context.cx/


PM

On Mar 5, 12:40 pm, "David Smithz" <dave1...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> Any more hints / feedback welcome.

You could always give the Zeus IDE a test drive:

http://www.zeusedit.com/features.html

It does PHP syntax highlighting, code folding, integrated version
control, project/workspace, seamless ftp/sftp editing, class
browsing etc, but it does not have any PHP debugger support.

NOTE: Zeus is shareware with a 45 day fully functional trial period.

Jussi Jumppanen
Author: Zeus IDE