Notepad++ vs Eclipse ?

[eluser]Mel_3[/eluser]
I'm moving from developing PHP/MySQL with MS Expression Web to CI.
(I'm on a PC with XP Pro as the OS.)

- Someone suggested Notepad++ as an editor
- Someone else suggested Eclipse

1 - Notepad++ seems like it is just a nice code editor with code formatting, color coding, and auto complete... right?

2 - Eclipse is considered an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) which includes an editor with all the features found in Notepad++...
...But what else does it do besides providing a nice code editor?

I've used IDE's for development of traditional software/firmware before... where you could set breakpoints in your code and compile it all when done... but I'm not sure what an IDE does for Web Development.

Thanks for any help.

[eluser]smilie[/eluser]
Well, it does pretty much more of the same.
Once you setup your IDE, you can also run code 'on the fly', set break points, include additional modules i.e. for MySQL connection / query's, for version control (subversion, cvs etc.) and much more.

Although, most people I believe simply have local web server and run tests on there, not using full potential of IDE.

Cheers,
Smilie

[eluser]Brandon Beasley[/eluser]
When it comes to PHP IDE:

Netbeans PHP - What I use

Eclipse PDT - Most other IDE's in production are building on this product in some way

Both products are more than capable and only you will be able to decide which flavor you like best.

[eluser]Aljebrini[/eluser]
Eclipse IDE with PDT is not like notepad++ !!

Eclipse IDE has many plugins which will help you in building your applications either if you was working alone or within a team.

SVN support.
Zend Debugger, xDebug support.
Auto Complete.
Error detection.
System Modeling ( ER diagrams, UML .. etc ).
PHPDoc support.

You could bring all tools you would need in your project to eclipse as plugin!
And it works with all platforms ( windows, linux... mac os )