Archives For ide

The CodeLobster PHP IDE

June 23, 2011

I’ve been contacted a couple of times now by the people behind CodeLobster, a PHP-centric IDE, in the hopes that I’d review/mention CodeLobster on this site. Now, CodeLobster only runs on Windows, which means I haven’t, and probably won’t, use it myself (I primarily use a Mac, only using Windows for testing purposes), but I have no problems mentioning products and sites here that I don’t personally use, because such things may still be of use to you (you, whoever you are, presumably are a separate entity with your own interests, needs, etc., and are statistically more likely to be running Windows). Anyway…

So, CodeLobster is an IDE for PHP that runs on Windows. It’s available in both a free and “professional” version, the professional version costing $100 (US). The free version comes with an HTML editor and inspector, a CSS editor, a JavaScript editor, a PHP editor, and a PHP debugger. This all includes the standard features such as code completion, code collapsing, browser preview, project management, FTP, and so forth. The professional version includes all of those features, plus plug-ins for specific tools and frameworks: CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Drupal, jQuery, Joomla, Smarty, Symfony, WordPress, and Yii. In other words, the professional version gives you code completion, contextual help, and so forth for these additional tools that you may also be programming in.

As I said, I haven’t personally used it, but if you’re looking for a PHP/Web Development IDE, it may be worth checking out.

In JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, Web Development , , , , , , ,
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What is Larry Thinking? #40 => Doing What I Do, Part 1

May 12, 2011

In this edition…

Continue Reading…

In JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, Web Development , , , , , , , , ,
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PhpStorm IDE

March 3, 2011

JetBrains has just released version 2 of their PHP IDE, PhpStorm. I haven’t personally used it, but it has all the features you’d want in a PHP IDE, such as code completion, unit testing, version control, FTP, debugging, etc., plus bonuses such as support for editing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There’s a 30-day free trial available and a personal license costs $99 (US). PhpStorm runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

As I said, I haven’t personally used it, but JetBrains is the creator of the powerful IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE, so their experience in creating good IDEs is well established.

PS It bugs me, for some reason, when the names of products use “PHP” as “Php”. It just seems so wrong!

In PHP, Web Development
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C++ Development Tools

April 4, 2010

When I wrote my C++ Programming: Visual QuickStart Guide book back in 2005 (with co-auth0r Andreas Signer), I had to decide what software to recommend for C++ beginners. As with most languages, full-time experienced programmers may like serious, complete tools, or commercial products, but I often find that software on that level can provide too much of a learning curve for someone simultaneously trying to learn a programming language. What I like to recommend in my books is software that’s approachable, reliable, and, preferably, free. So, for the C++ book, I recommend Bloodshed’s Dev-C++ for Windows.

At that time, Dev-C++ was more or less a standard for beginners (and it was free). I used either version 4 or the beta of version 5 for the book and for years readers seemed to be fine with Dev-C++. Now it seems that either Dev-C++ is no more or just not a good enough option. The Dev-C++ Web site is down, although I don’t know yet if the site is down for good. You can still download Dev-++ from Sourceforge, but it’s the five-year old version.

In searching for good alternatives to Dev-C++ (I don’t use Windows regularly, so couldn’t make a recommend on that myself), I came across a post about why you shouldn’t use Dev-C++. That writer recommended Programmer’s Notepad, Code::Blocks (which also runs on Mac OS X and Linux), and the free edition of Microsoft’s Visual Studio.  I haven’t used any of these, so I can’t personally recommend them, although I have used the full version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio (years ago for C# programming in ASP.NET), and can attest to how good it is as an IDE. In the comments to that post, some readers still say that Dev-C++ is so much easier to learn with than the others, so I wouldn’t rule that out entirely.

In C and C++ , , ,
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Eight PHP Power Tools

February 4, 2010

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.

In PHP, Web Development ,
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