As I have been programming more towards a total object oriented way I have found the need for a better editor than the old phped which I have used for many years. I required a new PHP editor (maybe IDE), so I setup to find one and as I use both Windows and Linux it had to run on both platforms.
Requirements: MUST have autocomplete for variables, functions and classes (when you have a large app its impossible to remember all the associated variable names), and run on Windows and Linux.
Here are the ones I tried:
these FAILED to meet the requirements:
- Netbeans – Java, so no thanks (dont program in Java, dont like Java, and Java is often the root of the issue if my development machine crashes!)
- Aptana - good but would not run at ALL on Ubuntu!
- Codelite – basic*, no autocomplete (for pre-defined vars, functions, classes).
- gPHPedit – OK, but no autocomplete (for pre-defined vars, functions, classes).
- Bluefish – OK, but basic,* but again no autocomplete (for pre-defined vars, functions, classes).
- vim – too basic*
- FCKEditor – setup docs useless, took too long to work out how it worked!
- mped – so uneventful I fail to remember anything about it….
*for some of the “basic” editors above you can spend your life adding plugins to attain required functionality.
DID NOT try – although I had them on the list:
- Zend Studio – seemed to be too bloated (the bloated framework drove me away from Zend, in favour of Kohana)
- geany – installed it, but where and how to use who bloody knows….
The WINNER:
- Komodo edit – brilliant, runs on both platforms, and its open source, hooorahhh.
Runs fast, and seems to be well supported. So thank you to Activestate for providing a great PHP editor. Download here:http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit
(its the “Komodo Edit” which is open source – NOT the IDE which is a commercial app)
Dave,
I have done the same type of assessment you posted here quite a few times over the years. I tried as many as I could find and happily landed on PHPStorm. If you have never heard of it, or have never given it a try, I think you might want to before settling for Komodo. This is my own personal opinion and I have no affiliation with JetBrains whatsoever; I just happen to be a huge PHPStorm fan-boy. Give it a try if you get a chance and let me know your opinion and how it ranks against your Komodo choice.
http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
Hi Sean,
Just had a look at phpstorm, it does not appear to have autocomplete for variables?
I ffind autocomplete very useful and it works well in Komodo edit, and it has bracket matching, and goto definitions for functions and classes which is also very useful/time saving.
All the best
Dave
Good Morning Dave,
Aaah, yes, it does have variable matching, class, method, and function matching. It also has autocomplete for frameworks, whether it is Zend Framework or your own self-created, it works the same way. One other aspect that many developers enjoy is the ability to compare two files side-by-side (horizontally or vertically) as well as comparing different files, or using one as reference while displaying both at the same time.
So it sounds like a good contender, if I had of known prior to the tests I would have included it.
However, comparing files takes WAY TOO LONG manually. Try “Beyond Compare” from scootersoftware – once used you will not waste time comparing files anyother way.
Hi David
I’ve done a similar exercise, and initially went with Netbeans6, mainly because I could finally set up debug with it and make it work – echo/print_r are okay but when you get into tricky loops and using mvc frameworks, a real debugger is great. I was wary of clunky java, like you but nb appears to run well and there is a php-specific version meaning you don’t need the full ide)
Anyway, an upgrade to nb6 killed my install (a java issue! that I never could solve) so looked around again and like you, found Komodo – what a nice piece of software and it has wordwrap too (something that almost all ides seem to find too hard to implement – nb6 failed to implement it). I want to write code my own way, and multiple indenting means that word wrap is a necessity.
I’ve since found that netbeans 7.1 installs fine, and gone to using both komodo and that – I like that nb finally can do wordwrap – and have debug again. Netbeans runs well in Ubuntu too, so it might be worth looking at it some time.
Hi Stu
Will keep that in mind, but komodo is still floatin-me-boat I am glad to say.