faster/better development

[eluser]Udi[/eluser]
Hi,

Lately I've read a lot about continuous deployment, how different dev teams use it and what tools they have.
So I've decide to write an app to boost my productivity and specially the debugging and testing code fast.

As I thought about what exactly I need, I figured that having the unit-test class testing all my models and libraries [with predefined tests] will do the work for now,
And I'm trying to figure out the proper design for this feature. Maybe each model will have unitest() method that contains all the tests, and certain controller I run before big commit will go over all models and the unitest() method..
I still don't know, but once I'll find the best solution I'll write about it in my blog and release the code.

Now, I'll answer specifically your questions:
1. Still don't have any special technique for testing, I use the log and just testing the code while running it.
2. I don't recommend using SVN. Personally I started using BitBucket, and its quite good for me.

Are there any plugins that will detect updated files, highlight them and upload to ftp server?

Any tips for better development are highly appreciated..

Maybe auto backup of the previous version before the new files are uploaded/upgraded as well?
Or any other CI related techniques that will make development easier?

This is something I wanted to develop it the first place, but I figured its not that helpful for me and decided to go with the solution I wrote above.