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I love to help code heads out on this topic as I clearly remember going through the exact same decision process and it was not and easy one. The market is flooded; the fact we have so many choices is a good thing don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! But, the time it takes up sifting through the choices can be quite daunting!

So, after many, many

do
{ download; install; evaluate; uninstall; }
until findOneThatWorks = true;

I've found I like to use a combination of Zend Studio. http://www.zend.com/products/zend_studio and jEdit http://www.zend.com/products/zend_studio

Zend Studio is not free but is priced fairly when considering it include the best PHP debugging environment I've ever come across. Price also come with Zend Debug Server which can be installed onto your dev/staging server to allow for remote debugging. Very nice.

jEdit is a mature and well-designed programmer's text editor with 7 years of development behind it. To download, install, and set up jEdit as quickly and painlessly as possible, go to the Quick Start page.

While jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

The core of jEdit is primarily developed by Slava Pestov, and jEdit plugins are being written by a diverse team of programmers from around the world.

Some of jEdit's features include:

* Written in Java, so it runs on Mac OS X, OS/2, Unix, VMS and Windows.
* Built-in macro language; extensible plugin architecture. Dozens of macros and plugins available.
* Plugins can be downloaded and installed from within jEdit using the "plugin manager" feature.
* Auto indent, and syntax highlighting for more than 130 languages.
* Supports a large number of character encodings including UTF8 and Unicode.
* Folding for selectively hiding regions of text.
* Word wrap.
* Highly configurable and customizable.
* Every other feature, both basic and advanced, you would expect to find in a text editor. See the Features page for a full list.

Good luck in you research. It is worth taking your time to find the right one as you are very much like the mechanic, carpenter, or machinist choosing on tool brand or another. You may choose to put full faith and comfort in one particular brand or you may find your more comfortable with a "mixed batch" of tools used for varying purposes.

"hammer is to carpenter as editor/ide is to web developer"

Gene Kelley
PHP/MySQL Web Developer
Trak Technologies Corporation
http://www.traktechnologiescorp.com/

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    I use Notepad++ in Windows, which is definetely a step up from MS Visual C++ html editor. It had good coloring, but Notepad++ beats it with all the extra stuff like the ability to collapse levels of code and the extra language coloring options.

    However, in linux, I use Quanta+, which dwarfs Notepad++ in features and usability. Coloring is the same and customizable, but the real kicker is the auto completion of html, javascript, php, and mysql functions and tags (and probably more for other languages). Not only does it offer autocompletion, but it also lets you know what can be called in any recognized tag or function, whether it is a built-in function or a local function.
    I think you can get it on sourceforge, if you want to check it out. And best of all, it's free!

      5 days later

      PHPEdit is not free.
      You need to purchase a license to get it 'free' ehehe

      -> "To be able to use it without any time limit you need to purchase a license"

      But yes, PHPEdit is the best PHP Editor for me.

        I use Crimson Editor which is free.

        Has some nice features, colour codes sections etc and does the job fine.

          17 days later

          Windows: Notepad++.
          GNU/Linux: gedit / Kate / Kwrite.

          🙂

            gkelley091565 wrote:

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            Zend Studio is not free but is priced fairly when considering it include the best PHP debugging environment I've ever come across. Price also come with Zend Debug Server which can be installed onto your dev/staging server to allow for remote debugging. Very nice.

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            So how long have you worked for Zend Studios? 😉

              saidbakr wrote:

              Hi,
              Is there an application better than Macromedia dreamweaver, to make PHP dynamic web page "WYSIG". I mean an application makes stuffs more visually, i.e less hard code.

              Of course: Zend Studio.

              WYSIWYG editor sucks.

                2 months later

                If I'm not wrong, PHP Edit is free only during the 30 trial days, but I'm not sure about it.
                I use windows and linux by programming. In windows I use PhpED, but I'm looking for an other editor. In linux I use quanta plus, is the best editor of the large amount of editors what I tried.

                  Oh yeah!
                  I've just downloaded and tried PHP Designer and it liked to me. It remembers me an HTML Editor which I used to use by programming (HTML GATE FREE), however, I think that PHP Designer is so better.

                    I tried PHP Designer and it did not do it for me. I went back to PHP Eclipse.

                      2 months later

                      "Best" is perspective.

                      For fast, quick edits, I like Notepad++ (free and solid, thin)
                      For big projects, I use PHPEclipse on Eclipse (free and almost solid, very thick)

                      If you have a bunch of cash, Zend Studio is nice but a bit clunky.

                      Why? Well, because development teams I have been on have recommended many, and I have found reasons to uninstall all of them except these two. Once again, though, it was a perspective thing, not because there was anything really wrong with other platforms.

                        I've used Homesite, Eclipse, and (briefly) Zend Studio.

                        Homesite is nice and lightweight, but fairly basic - good for small- to medium-sized sites.

                        I found Zend Studio to be pretty clunky. I still want to play around with it some more, just to see if it grows on me, but so far, it's been a big waste of $99.

                        Eclipse is Just Right. If you check it out, look for the ESftp plugin as well - makes it easier to shuttle files back and forth between the live server and localhost.

                          10 days later

                          I find PHP Designer really useful.
                          Recommend.

                            michaewlewis wrote:

                            Has anyone tried Microsoft WebDev Express?

                            If you mean the cut-down thing from Visual Studio, I'm using it now. Though not for PHP, oddly enough....

                              2 months later

                              I've just been using basic notepad to edit and create all of my files, but I find it annoying to pinpoint what line my error is on when the server reads out a parse error or something like that. Are there any (free) programs that you guys use that you think might be better?

                                I use HTML-Kit. I'm not claiming it's the best, just that it's what I'm used to (and the price is right: free).