PHPStorm 6 (PHP IDE)
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:23 am
So after making the decision to come back to PHP after my adventures into ASP.NET MVC and discovering Entity Framework was not to my liking, I decided to try to wipe the slate clean by learning a new framework or two and choosing a new IDE. I had never quite found my IDE for PHP, and always found myself making compromises. Either it was working with otherwise good IDEs with bugs (CodeLobster), working with overly-complex IDEs that didn't offer enough features to compensate for said complexity (Eclipse PDT), or IDEs that had a brilliant feature or two but lacked other arguably more important features (PHPDesigner).
I decided to give PHPStorm another try after getting a trial a long time back and barely using it, and have to say I am loving it! Setting up a debugger was simple and works great, the code completion is some of the best I have ever used for PHP, it has a nice, flexible project system, integrates with code repos, can be set to work with any framework within seconds with excellent framework-related code hinting (a great feature if you are using a slightly off-the-beaten path framework such as FuelPHP or Laravel), (and I know it is shallow, but) the "Darcula" appearance theme is just sexy and very easy on the eyes, and more.
It is not free, but the price is more than worth it. It is $99 for a personal license, $29 if you are a student and can even be free for verified open source projects. I have tried almost every PHP IDE at this point, and I really think I could settle into this one for the long haul. I can say pretty certainly that this is at the very least one of the best PHP IDEs available, if not the very best. Check out the trial if you routinely write PHP and see if you like it! I most definitely did!
I decided to give PHPStorm another try after getting a trial a long time back and barely using it, and have to say I am loving it! Setting up a debugger was simple and works great, the code completion is some of the best I have ever used for PHP, it has a nice, flexible project system, integrates with code repos, can be set to work with any framework within seconds with excellent framework-related code hinting (a great feature if you are using a slightly off-the-beaten path framework such as FuelPHP or Laravel), (and I know it is shallow, but) the "Darcula" appearance theme is just sexy and very easy on the eyes, and more.
It is not free, but the price is more than worth it. It is $99 for a personal license, $29 if you are a student and can even be free for verified open source projects. I have tried almost every PHP IDE at this point, and I really think I could settle into this one for the long haul. I can say pretty certainly that this is at the very least one of the best PHP IDEs available, if not the very best. Check out the trial if you routinely write PHP and see if you like it! I most definitely did!
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