This isn't about any specific tool, but I was wondering what other people used for free and/or pay-for tools to develop PHP code on?

I'm still pretty much new to the tools arena and am wide open to suggestions/advice/sources to check out.
Right now my two main tools for developing in PHP (HTML/CSS etc) are NotePad++ and NoteTab Pro. They each have free versions, but the paid versions are a lot more flexible. For me each has its own set of plusses - I'd love to find something better even if it involves a learning curve.

I tried NetBeans back on my XP machines but didn't really get along with it; it just didn't seem to fit my workflow at the time.

So any discussions of which are the better tools might be quite interesting.

I like Notepad++ because it's more automatic to see bracket pairs and does a good job of highlighting PHP-ese. For instance, leave off a closing paren, angle bracket, etc., and you start to see commands highlighted in your text, where there should be none.

But I like NoteTab Pro best because it allows me to create my own clip-libraries of commands, text, any repetitive typing to allow using them at a mouse-click rather than typing the whole thing in. I also downloaded two PHP clip libraries and a CSS 3 library with it, which have been life-savers for quick lookup of how to use most of the statements of PHP & related code. I think the max size of a clip is something ike 4,096 characters, a limit I've never come up against. NoteTab is a real timesaver for holding code snippets and the like.

So, whether it's an IDE or a text editor, I'd like to discuss it here and hopefully pick up some valuable tips.

Any takers?

Rivet`

    I use Komodo Edit (free -- Komodo IDE is the up-gunned paid version). Only feature I wish it had is built-in XDebug support (which I believe you get with the IDE version).

      +1 Komodo Edit : )

        OOF! The paid version is pretty pricey.

        I'll likely download install the free version later today when I have more time. It looks fairly interesting, but perhaps you can answer one question?

        Do you know it it's easy to create your own PHP library so one has a collection of oft-used commands & statements available from a single click in a viewer pane? A full PHP lib is large and too extensive to easily find what you want in it, where the clip method allows you to create a list of your own oft-used statements and/or code snippets?
        For instance, one of my current clip libraries for NoteTab Pro consists of everything I need to create forms, including format, sanitizing, validation, mail function, and several more. And I can add to or delete from or modify the clip anytime I wish. It saves a tremendous amount of typing.

        TIA,

        Rivet`

          yes ("snippets and macros")

          Also, FWIW, I am planning on buying the IDE (for the debugging features) when I have the extra cash. It would appear to be well worth it, and the Editor itself certainly exceeded my expectations.

            I'd like to recommend phpstorm. They have a 30 day free trial for evaluation, which I believe to be fully featured.

            Among the plusses (is that even a word?)
            - versions exist for: linux, osx, windows
            - xdebug integration
            - handles some other languages than php, such Sql, javascript, xml
            - supports specifying sql dialect, javascript libraries
            - and all the standard stuff you'd expect finding in an IDE

              I use nano if I'm directly on the server, Notepad++ for small projects with FTP involved, and NetBeans for the huge stuff. I've not had a problem with NetBeans on Win7 apart from it being a bit of a RAM-hog, and having Firefox as my default browser, which means Xdebug calls it if I'm using the NB "debug" functionality; between NB's RAM usage, FF's RAM usage, and VirtualBox's RAM usage it can eat a pretty big hole in 6GB of RAM sometimes (Firefox is also known as a RAM hog much of the time, as I understand).

              Traq: I tried Komodo edit before Netbeans, but found it less intuitive for me. Does that mean we "think different"? :p

              Johan, how is phpstorm on RAM usage? 🙂

                johanafm;11033117 wrote:

                I'd like to recommend phpstorm. They have a 30 day free trial for evaluation, which I believe to be fully featured.

                Among the plusses (is that even a word?)
                - versions exist for: linux, osx, windows
                - xdebug integration
                - handles some other languages than php, such Sql, javascript, xml
                - supports specifying sql dialect, javascript libraries
                - and all the standard stuff you'd expect finding in an IDE

                Now that looks like a strong contender; thanks for the lead. It'll be a few days before I have time to look it over closely but I will do just that.

                Thanks much,

                Rivet`

                  dalecosp;11033121 wrote:

                  Traq: I tried Komodo edit before Netbeans, but found it less intuitive for me. Does that mean we "think different"? :p

                  Of course not, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and preferences, it's okay if you disagree with me it doesn't mean either of us are in the wrong.
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                  . . . stupidhead

                  I went from dreamweaver to frontpage to notepad, notepad++, gedit, kate, and then Komodo. I've looked at other editors/IDEs, but I haven't tried many. Someday I will, I'm sure, but I have no motivation to leave Komodo for now. 🙂

                    traq;11033159 wrote:

                    Of course not, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and preferences, it's okay if you disagree with me it doesn't mean either of us are in the wrong.

                    HECK yeah, and everyone's entitled to their own preferences and opinions; otherwise great places like this could not exist for long. Many here are quite candid and well meaning; I think that's why I stick around. Well, that and respect for the responders for the most part.
                    ...

                    I went from dreamweaver to frontpage to notepad, notepad++, gedit, kate, and then Komodo. I've looked at other editors/IDEs, but I haven't tried many. Someday I will, I'm sure, but I have no motivation to leave Komodo for now. 🙂

                    Pretty similar experience here: Got into websites using Word 97 (easy to control the personal information Word included by default), the NotePad, NetBeans and finally NoteTab Pro and NotePad++ now. Thanks to a serious brain concussion I lost a lot of memory, especially short term, and now use Notetab and notepad exclusively.
                    With leftover memories of Visual Basic Enterprise and Microsoft's practices of auto-obsoletion and rising subscritpions I abandoned MS and turned to writing PHP/HTML/CSS codes for my "brain-practice"; something useful and cathartic at the same time for my situation.
                    I have a goal of being able to participate in responding to queries here in addition to several other professional forums and groups I still participate in. And along the way I want to give Python another try too as soon as I feel capable of handling its new (to me) methodology.

                    Sorry; sort of a reverse rant, I guess. 🙂

                    Rivet`

                      I had tried both Apatana and NetBeans, and liked each to a large degree, but when I tried Komodo, it just felt a bit "peppier", while being similar enough that the learning curve for me was pretty easy. Any of those, though, take a bit of fiddling around with preferences and assorted settings until you get the combination that is right for you. Heck, I must have tried half a dozen color schemes before I settled on my current (somewhat modified) scheme in Komodo. 🙂

                        5 days later
                        dalecosp;11033121 wrote:

                        Johan, how is phpstorm on RAM usage? 🙂

                        I've never had any issues with it, so I've not previously checked RAM. But then I don't have any VM resource hogs running either.

                        I'm running it on OSX and it seems to stay at 700-750 MB. Running static analysis on 10k files resulted in an increase to 1.1GB used.

                          5 days later

                          +1 for Komodo as well. I used Dreamweaver for about 6 years before deciding to broaden my horizons. I tried Notepad++, Notepad2, InType, Aptana, Eclipse, and Geany, but Komodo took the cake. I have heard a lot of good things about phpstorm and Sublime Text 2 (though neither are free if I remember correctly).

                            19 days later

                            Welcome; glad you found the thread useful. I learned quite a bit too but so far haven't made any changes to my methods.

                              5 days later

                              It's really hard to change - that I know. I use PhpDesigner and have for about 7 years.
                              It's not perfect - tried Komodo but didn't gel and then when I got really busy I just had to go back to the tool I know well.

                              Now I also have NotePad++ for when I want two editors at once (one on each monitor)
                              See, I can get one hand working on one, while the other hand works on other.. twice the development speed...
                              not really.. but good for code compare when sites mutate into multiple versions - I have three sites that evolved from one already complex thing.

                              I rather like NotePad++ as it goes

                                Did multi-line search/replace ever get added to PHPDesigner? I liked it a lot when I tried it a few (several?) years ago, but at that time it wouldn't handle multi-line searches.

                                  3 months later
                                  NogDog;11033057 wrote:

                                  I use Komodo Edit (free -- Komodo IDE is the up-gunned paid version). Only feature I wish it had is built-in XDebug support (which I believe you get with the IDE version).

                                  from where it can be downloaded for free?
                                  may it be on mediafire or rapidshare?

                                  http://www.checkerplagiarism.net/

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