I’ve tried and tested many an IDE in my time, starting with Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 many years ago. Dreamweaver served my needs brilliantly for quite a few years and I was in belief that I wouldn’t ever need another IDE, but as I started coding in PHP and moved to clean handcoded XHTML and CSS from table based layouts, I found Dreamweavers clumsiness just started to get in the way. I also found it slow over the network as all of my files were stored on our Linux testing server.
So the hunt for an alternative started. After a while digging around for a new IDE, I came across a neat little program called Aptana. Whilst it was still in heavy development, I was amazed how quick it was and how rich the PHP functionality was compared to Dreamweaver. I tried it out for a while and eventually ditched Dreamweaver and started using Aptana for all my web design and PHP coding.
I happily used Aptana for quite a while, but when they decided to ditch PHP support for version 2.0 in favour of Eclipse PDT and concentrate more on Ruby development, I was forced to start my search again. The PDT functionality was not a patch on Aptanas PHP support, so I was (as were many Aptana users) rather disappointed with Aptanas decision to do this.
Anyway, so began the search for a new IDE which supported PHP. I tried all sorts from NuSphere to Zend but eventually came across Netbeans. Although PHP support was in its infancy, I was impressed with the functionality in Netbeans and it had far fewer bugs than Aptana 1.5. So I installed, started using it and I’m happy to say that our entire team are now using Netbeans for our PHP and web development. Its PHP functionality is improving all the time, has good support for CSS, JavaScript and HTML. There is the ability to upload your projects via FTP and SFTP and best of all, it’s FREE!
So if you’re looking at changing your IDE, I would recommend giving Netbeans a try.
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hi,
i am also using netbeans for my php work.. it is great..
i search on google and found your page. i was looking for a free versiion to replace Dreamveiwer. ill try net beans. tnx a lot
I have been using Aptana+PDT for some time now . but, i think it’s heavy on my computer. slow startup . netbeans also. so,I will try Zend or be very simple Bluefish !
Hi Mark!
I’ve been using Coda for about 2 years and now that I’m working on a bigger PHP project, it’s getting kind of hard to deal with all the code using that app. I’ll try Netbeans now
Best regards
Michal
hi, i also use netbeans.. it is great..
Regards
Naveen Arora
Try komodo editors; things will work than never before
I like netbeans although uses a lot of memory and can slow down when i have many applications open. Now trying codelobster.
Steve F
I recommend everybody to try Codelobster PHP Edition (http://www.codelobster.com). It’s free PHP IDE, that has its own powerful debugger, very advanced PHP autocomplete, even SQL autocomplete, and very handy navigation with “Ctrl”-key holding.
Tooltips with parameters are shown for functions, there is ability to call in for help from site php.net. The same works for html, css and javascript.
And you have an ability to use special plug-ins for Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Smarty, CodeIgniter and JQuery.