First Post

amy_damnit

Hi, this is my first post on PHPFreaks. :o

I am a beginner to PHP and would like to know what PHP Editors people use?

(I have been told that a good editor can make your life easier - especially as a beginner.)

My platform is OS X on a MacBook and MAMP.

A free editor woud be preferable since I don't know how far this endeavor will go?! 😕

Thanks,

Amy

jazz_snob

A simple editor is probably a good place to start. On the mac I used jedit. Its simple, free, easy and has nice features including a really good search/replace.

laserlight

I do not use Mac OS X myself, but Smultron is a good editor that I have suggested with success to a friend who does.

amy_damnit

Thanks for the suggestions of JEdit and Smultron.

I just started thinking something though...

Should my original post have asked for a good PHP "IDE" instead of a an "Editor"? (Technically there is a big difference.)

I have heard people say that Eclipse is "the bomb" as far as professional grade IDE's, but I am not sure if that is a good choice for PHP on a Mac and/or if it would be too much for me to digest along with trying to learn PHP?? 😕

Hopefully I will get good at PHP and thus need a stable long-term solution, but I also don't want to tackle too much at once!

Not sure if that help any...

Amy

laserlight

amy.damnit wrote:
I have heard people say that Eclipse is "the bomb" as far as professional grade IDE's, but I am not sure if that is a good choice for PHP on a Mac and/or if it would be too much for me to digest along with trying to learn PHP?

That is true: when you are starting out, you generally do not need the features of an IDE other than the editor. You can use your favourite web browser to view the output, and you do not need any kind of file transfer integration since you should be doing development on local webspace.

amy_damnit

So what does everyone think is my best first step?

Should I just learn PHP using TextEdit on my Mac?

Or should I use an IDE like Eclipse?

I found this good review of IDE's here

I would be willing to learn (or even buy) an IDE if it helped me learn quicker. :queasy:

(I know we used an IDE in a Java class that I took in college and it appeared to be a good investment, but then again, I dropped the class because Java was too much for my brain!)

Amy

laserlight

amy.damnit wrote:
So what does everyone think is my best first step?

Pick the tool (or combination of tools) that feels right, and get started actually learning PHP. It is not like you are bound to your selected toolset for the rest of your life.

coldwerturkey

Definitely don't use TextEdit...

In my opinion, Panic's Coda is the best web development app for os x. It has so many amazing features to help you learn php, including a built in php reference book, code hints and custom snippets.. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time on other apps before I bought this one.

amy_damnit

Okay, so I decided to be bold and I downloaded and install Eclipse PDT (i.e. Eclipse_PDT_All-In-One_MacOSX-carbon_v2.0.0M2.tar) for my MacBook.

It seemed like the best choice after two days of research.

So, I have just spent the last 1 1/2 days meticulously reading the online manuals, and now feel pretty comfortable with the Eclipse UI and concepts like "perspectives", "views", "editors" and general navigation.

The problem, however, is that...

1.) I can't get the Code Helper (??) to work?!

2.) I don't know where to "run" my code?!

When I took that Java class a while back, the instructor typed code into Eclipse, and as he did, Eclipse would suggest things like function names and correct his type-o's. He was also able to run the code so we could see the output and see the values of variables.

How do I do that in Eclipse PDT??

I tried entering this code in a file named "File1.txt" as well as "File1.php"

<?php
	phpinfo();
?>

but neither the "Code Helper" nor an output window work/exist.

I am sooooo frustrated, because I spent all this time learning the UI and now the important stuff isn't there or working?! 🙁

Amy

coldwerturkey

if you have apache running & php enabled, anything in Library/WebSever/Documents/ or ~username/Sites/ will run php

amy_damnit

coldwerturkey;10894415 wrote:
if you have apache running & php enabled, anything in Library/WebSever/Documents/ or ~username/Sites/ will run php

I'm not sure I understand what you mean, but this probably relates to another question I had...

Below is how my MacBook is setup...

[INDENT]MAMP Document Root:
[INDENT]Macintosh HD/Users/user1/Documents/DEV/+htdocs[/INDENT]

MAMP Ports:
[INDENT]Apache Port: 80[/INDENT]
[INDENT]MySQL Port: 3306[/INDENT]

Eclipse Location:
[INDENT]Macintosh HD/Applications/eclipse[/INDENT]

Eclipse Workspace:
[INDENT]Macintosh HD/Users/user1/Documents/DEV/+workspace[/INDENT]

Eclipse Test PHP File:
[INDENT]Macintosh HD/Users/user1/Documents/DEV/+workspace/Project1/TestPHP1.php[/INDENT][/INDENT]

So how does the MAMP Document Root directory relate to the Eclipse Workspace and how should my MacBook environment be set up??

(It would be nice if they would put this in the documentation!)

Thanks,

Amy