Yesterday, InfoWorld posted an in-depth review of eight PHP-capable IDE’s. Eclipse with PDT, Netbeans, Zend Studio, NuSphere PhpED, and ActiveState Komodo all get “very good” marks. Of these, Eclipse and Netbeans are free, which is always a bonus. If you’re looking for a new IDE for your PHP development, do read this article.
Personally, I use a text editor for my PHP development (TextMate for Mac OS X). But I have used Eclipse quite a bit, just not for PHP. Eclipse is a standard foundation for lots of IDEs, like Flex Builder/Flash Builder and Aptana Studio. I’ve used Netbeans for Ruby development. Both Netbeans and Eclipse are quite good and extremely extendable, but not as user-friendly as some commercial products, in my opinion. I never really took to Zend Studio, for no particular reason. Maybe the price! I did use NuSphere PhpEd for a while (I did some consulting work for that company) and it seemed to be a very likable solution, but it only runs on Windows, which rules it out for me.
I use phpDesigner, it was free to begin with then it turned into a product. It was cheap, don’t think I will upgrade for a while but it is a really good IDE, other than that I use TextPad. May I ask why do you use a Mac Larry? What are the benefits you see to using it for programming?
Hey, Jason. I had heard good things about phpDesigner but it’s Windows-only, which is a restriction for me. As for Macs, I used to prefer them for aesthetic reasons, and because they crashed less often than Windows, and didn’t have the security problems, and because the UI was so innovative. But a few years ago I think Macs really became a great programmer’s computer because the OS was rewritten to use a Unix foundation. So I would argue that Mac OS X is the most usable version of Unix. And many of the technologies I work with, like PHP, MySQL, Apache, Ruby, etc., were developed for Unix first, and only ported to Windows later. In fact, for a while, Macs were really used in education, publishing, and multimedia. Now I know a lot of programmers, like the guy that created PHP, use Macs. I can do whatever on my Mac and take that work to a Unix server without problem. Plus, there’s tons of free software available. Even though I understand that Windows 7 is pretty good, I couldn’t imagine switching back.
To be fair about it, I expect one is paying more for Mac computers. My understanding is that for what you get in a Mac computer, you’d pay a comparable amount for a Windows PC. But you can get a cheaper, less capable PC than you can a Mac. And there is not the same amount of software available on Macs that there is on Windows. Many commercial applications, like MS Office or Quicken, get ported to Macs later, and end up being of much less quality. And, depending upon your business, you may need to run Windows, too, in order to test. I run Windows in a virtual environment when I need to test Web sites, code, or applications.
So that’s where I stand on the subject of Macs. Mostly I like that my Mac just works!
I’m always confused when people have problems with PCs, When I first started really using my PC it had Windows 98. If you used Win98 you would know it loved displaying “the blue screen of death” a few times a day. Had to restart after installing almost anything. Very frustrating but XP was a lot better, and Vista is good. I’m getting into more and more Adobe related stuff. Am using Photoshop, Flash and Flex IDE a lot and they all handle well on my 3-5 year old installation of XP (so long ago I’ve forgotten exactly how long). Haha, My partner is begging me to upgrade to Vista or Win7. I have nothing against Macs because I have not used one since the early 90s… oh wait in 2000 because the IT teacher at school loved them. I don’t like the look or feel of them, but to each their own! Just wanted to get your take on it =)
Back on topic! There seems to be a serious lack of Open Source IDEs for PHP, what do you think of the web-based editors that are popping up?
XP seems to be pretty decent (that’s what I use when I have to) and I’ve heard good things about Windows 7, but I thought Vista was more or less a disaster. Even MS more or less admitted as much. But, yes, to each their own! Plus Apple has finally gotten through to Windows people by selling them iPods and iPhones!
As for open source IDEs for PHP, you can use Eclipse for PHP development, which is a pretty great, although not that user-friendly, option. I haven’t looked into any Web-based editors. I’m iffy about the idea of putting more and more things into my Web browser as if it’s somehow a better option than having a standalone application.
“but I thought Vista was more or less a disaster”, to be honest I have no idea why, it runs well, some concepts are very different UI wise but really there is nothing that bad. It’s just non-tech people not knowing how to use it my guess? It was a mindset change that people didn’t want and got over it with Windows 7 because from what I have seen not much has changed (see windows 7 in action every day right next to me). Once upon a time I wanted a mac-mini but never got one (price was a bit high and I was a poor freelancer at the time).
Eclipse, I use the Flex based IDE and of course used Aptana with your AIR book. Those are nice enough but the PHP one does not compare to phpDesigner IMO, just feels easier to use. I keep hearing/reading from developers that it is way too bloated.
Yes, the cloud app thing, not a concept I’m head over hills for myself. I like the desktop and the idea of not everything being connected to the web. Call it old fashioned privacy concerns? Being in control of my own data as well. I don’t personally use any Google based tools, as nice as they are, but my work place does.
No, no, no: Vista was buggy as all hell. A friend of mine had a brand-new laptop with Vista and within a month it couldn’t shut down anymore. And it crashed all the time. That’s just one person’s experience but I heard similar things here in the States a lot. Another friend of mine was a life-long Windows user but bought a Mac last year to do iPhone development. He really likes his Mac now, but says that Windows 7 is pretty comparable in terms of UI.
Many people did mention to me problems with logging in and shutting down. Two things you think they would have got right first? I started using Vista with SP1, same for XP. They tend to have things on the rails by the first service pack. A total disater just seems a bit harsh, the launch of the software, definitely but it got better.
Okay, so disaster isn’t an appropriate description. I also think about the fact that MS had to extend the support for XP (because people were slow to adopt Vista, with the problems) and that companies originally shipped new laptops with Vista, then started giving users the option of installing XP instead. That is bad. Could you imagine a Toyota dealership recommending you buy last year’s model instead? Mmm…bad example. Anyway… SP1 apparently fixed a lot of things and, to be fair, I don’t normally install the latest version of Mac OS X until after the .1 release (the first major update after the initial version) so that many of the bugs are gone. And there was a pretty bad bug in this latest version of Mac OS X (since fixed) where my laptop would shut down if I set it down without being extremely careful (Mac laptops have a movement sensor built into them for protection purposes). Anyway, my understanding is still: Windows ME, shoddy; XP, pretty good; Vista, shoddy; Windows 7, pretty good. Maybe they get it right every other time?