A similar question has been asked several times - sometimes in old threads.
I didn't find the right tool yet, trying some of the proposed IDEs. Maybe there is something new that has been released recently that you know and fits the following requirements:
Basically, same features as Eclipse for Java
- Syntax colors
- Able to tell where the function is called
- Names and arguments completion
- Refactoring
- Find and read automatically the includes to get definitions
- HTML and Javascript edition would be a +
- (Run / test some functions via the PHP interpreter)
- Fast
(PHP Eclipse is slow and doesn't have all of the Java features)
I don't mind Paypaling a few coins to get something decent.
Edit feedback
- Was / am using Emacs 23.1 with
php-mode- Emacs basic features (.emacs, kbd-macros, fast and easy navigation, shortcuts, buffers, the many available functions, custom lisp, etc... etc...)
- Main misses are the smart refactoring and functions callers (AFAIK)
- Tried NetBeans (couple of weeks ago) and found it pretty heavy - with seemingly less features than its Eclipse counterpart
- Tried Eclipse PHP: heavy, and didn't find some of the requested features - maybe my mistake but was expecting the same shortcuts as for Java. All in all, looks like it is a pale adaptation of the Java interface and quickly gave up
- Tried Aptana 3 on my Ubuntu 10.04 (in Aug), Eclipse look and heaviness - got a crash pretty quickly (don't remember exactly why - I know it's a beta but the IDE has to be reliable). Compared it with JetBrains just now and prefer JB.
- Trying JetBrains right now: so far good impression
- importing current projects, good
- setting the php extensions, good
- changing default font, good
- refactoring, funcs callers, good
- completion is so nice (for completes to
for,foreachand my other funcs / $vars starting with for) - indentation is subtle (a fine gray vertical line)
- relatively fast response (while Java based)
- All in all, it is currently my favorite - light interface, like the speed, the look. Used to Emacs and C++, I feel "at home" with this editor.
- edit July 2011 Tried Zend Studio a lot. It is really professional, and PHP dedicated. All the features I use in the Java environment are present in ZS (hovering the mouse over words, go to function declaration, refactor(may be dangerous...), etc...).
- Zend Studio, despite the price, is my favorite IDE currently.
- However even the latest update has lots of annoying bugs (formatting, auto-quoting...). Amazing how these things - kind of thing that requires some algorithm design (typical textbook case) - are working perfectly in Java, while they do not in PHP...
Not the same programmers seemingly :-(
