Best IDE for CI

[eluser]Daniel Moore[/eluser]
[quote author="TWP Marketing" date="1237353996"]simshaun;
Craftsmen, such as you and I, need more than a "Multi-head, Aerodynamically sculpted, Gold-plated Hammer/IDE" (Trademarked, Patent pending, waiting for goverment funding.) to build products.[/quote]

Ooh! I want a Gold-plated Hammer! Can I apply for some government bail-out funds to get that? Of course, I don't need it to have a "multi-head" as I only have one thumb to hammer on at a time.

Seriously, though, I think for people like myself, who spend a lot of time developing in PHP need a good editor with all those features, and as I said before, I use UltraEdit. Not only have I gotten it customized to the way I work with PHP and with CodeIgniter, but it also comes in handy for other projects I work on from time to time which are not PHP, such as Python, C++, Delphi, and others. An Integrated Development Environment is not totally necessary for PHP, because PHP isn't a compiled language, which is why I've stuck with UltraEdit instead of going to UEStudio, but due to my constant use of the other languages, I may be going to UEStudio soon, as it uses UltraEdit as the Editor portion of the IDE. Just the class handling alone is enough to make me want to switch over to it. It surpasses any other editor or environment I've tried. Most people don't like shelling out the cash for it, though, but my free trial of UEStudio has me convinced that if I switch away from UltraEdit, it will be for UEStudio.

Of course, when doing PHP projects, it is also essential to be able to handle HTML and CSS well, and I like the built-in CSS Builder with UltraEdit.

[eluser]n0xie[/eluser]
I use either Netbeans or VIM.

Editors are highly 'use what you're most comfortable' with. VIM speeds editing up quite a bit, if you know how to use it. Then again I do like the phpDoc support that Netbeans offers.

[eluser]XeRGi0[/eluser]
I think that when you're developing big important projects you need some IDE & others tools to help make things better and a lil' bit easier...

I choose Eclipse IDE 'cause it has tons of plugins that can help me in my work... I also choose it 'cause i though i can debug my projects, but i can't make that work... I don't know if is because the nature of PHP, or because of the framework... but I can't do it...

Eclipse is my recommended tool for write php, html, css and javascript... all in one...

[eluser]isaaccreative[/eluser]
I'm not a fan of IDE's mainly because all of the ones I've seen are slow & clunky. I'm on a Mac and my editor of choice (as of now) is Coda.

If your looking for auto-completion based off your own class files then Zend Studio is probably your best bet.

However I find auto-completion a bit annoying and prefer "snippets" or "text expanders". Coda has a nice and simple snippet feature. I usually have two group of snippets - one for CI API's and the other for my current project.

Here's cool article/video about using text expanders.
http://net.tutsplus.com/videos/screencas...st-as-you/

Then again...

There is no substitute to using good OOP practices such as Polymorphism. Proper planning and using a Mind Map or UML is a good way to set-up all abstract classes. Then when it's time to make an update you edit a function per class as oppose to just sloppily adding random functions to your classes.

[eluser]ptrippett[/eluser]
I never liked IDE's until I tried Komodo Edit... I tried Komodo IDE for a while but it is a bit too clunky when working with svn files and its by far easier to just use an external svn app to perform checkin/outs etc. Also, the debugging in Komodo IDE is slooooow. So i just stick with Komodo edit which is free.

[eluser]Mark Skilbeck[/eluser]
[quote author="TWP Marketing" date="1237338712"]XeRGi0,
I use the Uniform Server WAMP ( http://www.uniformserver.com ) under Win XP and DO NOT USE an IDE. I haven't found any IDE which gains me enough to make the effort of usage worthwhile ie. constantly comparing IDE output to what I would do if I hand-coded from scratch.

While arguably there are some advantages to using an IDE, I think these are more applicable in a group programming environment; similarity of coding methods, sharing of common styles and perhaps speed, and not so applicable to MY business model (single developer house).

My personal experience over the years is that learning to hand-code FIRST (before using an IDE), makes for better OVERALL output. If speed is the most important (or only) criteria, the customer will be the one who suffers first, but you-the-developer pay the final price in lower business returns...

Of course, if you develop IDE's for a living, your opinion may differ from mine. What a shock that is! :bug: Season to taste and remember your customer pays the bills.[/quote]

I don't see how a newbie using an IDE would be detrimental to his/her programming ability/growth. IDE's (the best of them) just make writing much easier and less repetetive. Frameworks, however, should only be taken on once the newbie has a grasp of the programming language he/she is writing in.

I completely disagree that writing everything without the help of an IDE will give better output. That's poppycock, to me. As I said before, using an IDE makes writing much faster and less repetetive*, and, if you ask me, being able to write fastly will benefit all parts of the project - programmer, client, audience, etc.

Something that I absolutely need from an IDE is 'code snippets'. The ability to type 'ciload', hit tab and then have the IDE rewrite it as $this->load->library(); with different place-markers in the new text that I can tab through and edit - a feature, I believe, was made popular by TextMate. All other things are just clutter, to me, except syntax highlighting, of course.

Speaking of TextMate, I was on my sister's mac just the other day, while looking after her kids**. I grabbed a free trial of TextMate and, sweet Mary, it's amazing! When I started the program, I had a single window with 0 other 'features', aka. clutter. It was a beautiful moment. But, then she came home and spoiled my fun. I didn't get a chance to test out any CI snippet bundles, but I will next time.

The problem with many IDE's these days is they're just so ... fat. The programmer must sit there and think 'what else can I add to this? What else can I use to make this program even c00ler?' and that just makes for a bad program.

A perfect example of a program that has eaten way too many McDonald's burgers is phpDesigner 2008. What an awful program! Nothing but bugs bugs bugs. It loads terribly slow, everything you do inside it is laggy. Gah. Awful.

inType is my current editor of choice. I'm about to check out 'e', too. Anything that works like TextMate!

These are just my oppinions, not to ruffle anyones feathers.

*This helps you not blow your head of with daddy's shotgun, which, I think you'll agree, is very important to your quality of work (a working head, that is).
**This comes close to invalidating point one.

[eluser]HomersBrain[/eluser]
[quote author="herrkaleun" date="1237348245"]I've used almost everything till i found what i was really looking for.
TEXTMATE !!!!!!!!!!

Throw your pc out of the window AND get a MAC!
[/quote]

I'll second that. Textmate is all I use.

[eluser]vitoco[/eluser]
i prefer the all mighty text editor+plugins , so when i was developing in XP , Notepad++ was my choice and for a server WOS , Webserver on a Stick , a portable version of LAMP , now , in Xubuntu my choice is Geany ( almost exactly like Notepad ) and out of the box LAMP.

I've tried many IDEs, PDT,Netbeans,Zend,PHPed,PHPDesigner,etc... but it's to many features , for me , less is more , light is better.

what do i need :

- monospace font
- syntax highlighting
- snippets
- object/function list
- tabs

Notepad++ / Geany has it all

[eluser]halwaraj[/eluser]
I am a JAVA developer. So i use Netbeans. This IDE is good. Its powerful.

Initially it was a bit of a mess but as i got used to the php side of it, I found it to be really great. I use WAMP as the preffered server. I am on windows.

netbeans is hefty but quite robust.

Try it u'll like it.

[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
[quote author="halwaraj" date="1238110341"]
netbeans is hefty but quite robust.
[/quote]

You ain't just whistling dixie! I thought I might give it a go, since there's a Debian package pre-rolled (albeit only version 6.0.1) and apt reports that it (and all its dependencies) will require a download of 250MB, and take up an extra 600MB once they're all installed. Scratch that idea. I'll stick with Quanta a bit longer I reckon.