Best editor for learning php

[Paul Furman]

I'm sort of competent with html & taking a php class... I took a VB6
class last year & really liked the built in editor. Is there something
like this that helps with indenting, etc? I'm currently using 1st page
which is helpful for the color coding.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

I'm sort of competent with html & taking a php class... I took a VB6
class last year & really liked the built in editor. Is there something
like this that helps with indenting, etc? I'm currently using 1st page
which is helpful for the color coding.

One of my favourites is Nedit, which has built in syntax highlighting for
a number of languages, including HTML, CSS, PHP and Perl (there are about
20 supplied, and it's easy to write your own syntax highlighting rules or
download them from the 'Net).

Nedit does auto-indentation and allows you to program in macros for
commonly used edits.

It has a nice search and replace function that supports regular
expressions.

There is bracket-matching: if your cursor is by a ) or a } or a ], Nedit
will highlight the opening ( or { or [, which is very handy if you're
trying to find syntax errors in Perl!

If you have a bit of PHP like:

<?php include("myfile.php"); ?>

and highlight the "myfile.php" with your mouse then go to File>Open
Selected on the menu, "myfile.php" will open up. No need to find your way
through the File>Open dialogue!

It also integrates nicely with tools like HTML Tidy <http://tidy.sf.net/>.

And it's free. http://www.nedit.org/

The catch (for you anyway) is that it doesn't run on Windows. Linux/Unix
and Mac OS X only. And the interface is a bit ugly and grey.

 

[Paul Furman]

It also integrates nicely with tools like HTML Tidy <http://tidy.sf.net/>.

And it's free. http://www.nedit.org/

The catch (for you anyway) is that it doesn't run on Windows. Linux/Unix
and Mac OS X only. And the interface is a bit ugly and grey.

I'm on windows

: - (

Sounds great otherwise...

 

[kayodeok]

I'm on windows

EditPlus (http://www.editplus.com/) does everything Toby outlined
for Nedit on Windows, if you are not happy with the Syntax
Highlighting and other stuff, you can always write your own or
download up to date syntax from the website; they even have a
syntax file for PHP 5 (http://www.editplus.com/html.html)

If you are not happy with the syntax highlighting for HTML, you can
change it or download a more up to date one, if you are not happy
with the Template (I think it defaults to the Transitional DTD),
you can write you own and replace the default one.

I once wrote a syntax for my OPML files so it isn't so difficult to
write yours...

Only downside is that it is not really suited for a Limited Account
User in Windows XP; I got round this by installing it into a folder
where I have read/write access (the preferences ini files are
stored in the Program Files folder which a limited Account user
will not have read/write access to).

 

[Paul Furman]

Thanks. $30 probably better spent than on a textbook. The VB book I got
was almost useless.

 

[kayodeok]

Thanks. $30 probably better spent than on a textbook. The VB
book I got was almost useless.

You can try EditPlus for 30 days before you pay for it

 

[Richard]

I'm sort of competent with html & taking a php class... I took a VB6
class last year & really liked the built in editor. Is there something
like this that helps with indenting, etc? I'm currently using 1st page
which is helpful for the color coding.

Php coder from www.php.net

 

[Paul Furman]

Php coder from www.php.net

Thanks but I couldn't find that on the site. This page discusses
integrating the help files in chm format into various IDE's:

http://www.php.net/docs-echm.php

BTW I moved some of the replies here to another thread titled "HTML
Editors" where several other suggestions were made.

 

[kayodeok]

Thanks but I couldn't find that on the site. This page discusses
integrating the help files in chm format into various IDE's:

PHP Coder can be found at:
http://www.phpide.com/forum/

Screenshots:
http://www.phpide.com/go/programs/php_coder.htm

It looks good and seemed to be laid out like the VB IDE; I am even
tempted to download it except that I personally prefer an editor
that can handle all source code (HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, PHP, Perl,
ASP, Python,C/C++, Java, JSP, Javascript, VBScript etc) rather than
one that handles just one.

Besides, I suspect it will be slow (I bought an IDE for Perl called
Komodo but I abandoned it for EditPlus because of the speed though
it was better specced for Perl).

 

[Joerg Fischer]

One of my favourites is Nedit, [...]

Good choice.

And it's free. http://www.nedit.org/

The catch (for you anyway) is that it doesn't run on Windows.
http://nedit.gmxhome.de/winport.html

Linux/Unix and Mac OS X only.

NEdit requires a working X environment if it shall run. For Linux,
Unix, BSD there is usually Xfree. For MacOS 10.* (that's what the X
stands for there) Apple offers a free port of Xfree that you must
download and install.

And the interface is a bit ugly and grey.

http://www.nr.no/~joachim/Niki/index.php/Customizing NEdit

Cheers,
Jörg

 

[Toby A Inkster]

http://nedit.gmxhome.de/winport.html

Well, yes I did know about the Windows port and have used it via Cygwin in
the past. It's a somewhat clunky solution though.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

http://www.nr.no/~joachim/Niki/index.php/Customizing NEdit

Bleedin' heck. I *knew* there must be a way to make Lesstif look half
decent without having to hack away at the source code!

 

[garbo]

I'm on windows

: - (

Sounds great otherwise...

You might like to look at SciTe from http://www.scintilla.org
It's free too - and it works on Windows.