a good php program?

i currently just use Notepad

[mylungsarempty]

Is there a good visual program i can use to aid me in my PHP coding endeavors? Right now i'm just writing my code in Notepad and hoping for the best... weeding out errors one at a time and so forth.

[brotherhood of LAN]

something that colour codes your scripts might help when weeding our errors... I use PHPEdit, AFAIK its still free to download, though you might have to "sign up".

[sidyadav]

I use Zend Studio [zend.com], the best PHP program in the world, it costs a little $$$ but hey.

Sid

[humpo]

HTML-KIT works well for php and is free

[Sunshyn]

I used to use Notepad but was introduced to UltraEdit by a friend. I use relatively few of it's available features but just the powerful search and replace tools make it more than worthwhile. Besides, I'm constantly picking up on new time saving tricks with it.

[mek2600]

I personally use Dreamweaver MX simply for the color coding, the tabbed layout for all my open files, and because it'll let me edit PHP files from an FTP server without making me go through the hassle of downloading, editing, then uploading again.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that it also has the ability to help me complete the commands by displaying the syntax for a lot fo PHP and HTML commands. That's always helpful.

MK

[mack]

I also use phpedit,

It is still a free download although you do need to sign up to register it.

It is very similar to most text editors. It uses text highlighting to clearly seperate different elements, very handy for nesting within yur code. Another nice feature is .. when you place a " it adds the closing " and you simply type your text within the symbol. The same is true for all open/close symbols.

Mack.

[Robino]

EditPlus.

Nice color coding.

[Birdman]

TextPad is nice. The only thing I don't like about it is it takes longer to open than NotePad.

[divaone]

i second html-kit. free, custom color coding, snippets, plus lots of plugins, also free.

[Elijah]

I used to use Editpad Lite, but then I found jEdit. I think jEdit is the best text editor that I have used so far for programming. Some of its many features include syntax highlighting and bracket matching. It's free and open source.

[Shannon Moore]

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet --
I use Homesite, and have since it was released in the mid- 1990's. Commercial app, but highly worthwhile. I do use a separate HTML validator, and occasionally use a separate CSS editor, but they're all launchable from within Homesite.

If you have any version of Dreamweaver released in the past 3 years or so, you basically have Homesite (when in "code/developer view") since Macromedia purchased Allaire, the previous commercial owners of Homesite.

[lorax]

I use Nusphere PHPEd. Very nice program with lots of nice developer tools built in like a debugger and watches for sifting through your code.

[louponne]

PHP Expert Editor

"Library" of code snippets that can be organized in groups.

"Projects" for sites you're working on with subgroups of pages.

"Function explorer" where you can click to go to a function within a page. Also shows variables.

Direct access to PHP manual - place the cursor within a function and Ctrl-F1 takes you to the manual page describing it.

Those four features alone save *lots* of time.

[normaldude]

TextPad is nice. The only thing I don't like about it is it takes longer to open than NotePad.

I also like TextPad. You can use TextPad for anything.. Java, C++, PHP, HTML, etc.

[ergophobe]

I've tried several of those, but I've settled into HAPedit, which is free. It has most of the features you might want - brace/bracket/paren matching, syntax highlighting, code completion, code explorer and all that. Integrated debugger would be nice, but I don't know whether that will happen.

I settled on it because it was free, small, doesn't put files all over my computer (no registry entries or anything, all stays nicely in the directory where I put it). I like it better than HTML-Kit and found it more stable by far than PHPEdit, Maguma Studio and several other freebies. Most of the non-PHP specific ones (Ultra Edit, ... whatever else was mentioned here) seem nice and stable, since they have a much longer track record than most of the PHP-specific editors.

I also like Kommodo a lot, but it takes forever to start up. It has the only debugger I have ever been able to actually make work for PHP, but I haven't used my copy in forever 'cause it takes so long to start up. I sometimes think about buying the upgrade though.

Tom

[travelbuff]

I really like Crimson Editor [crimsoneditor.com...] . Good syntax highlighting, powerful find and replace that support regex and a grep type function. It is also free and open source.

[bluedevil]

Emacs with syntax highlighting.

[jatar_k]

I use textpad mostly and love it

I also use phpedit once in a blue moon, works well

I also use nedit with syntax highlighting which is ok but not my preference.

[TRiley]

Personally I also prefer to use Dreamweaver mx2004.
Being colour coded, built in ftp, site manager and where I make all other parts of my site, it's less hassle and works great for me. :)

[uncle_bob]

I'm using jEdit, which has colour coding, and best of all I can run it on Windows and Linux.

[bpresent]

PHPEdit is fantastic (so long as you don't mind the odd dialogue box in French).

Beware of the "Save All" function - sometimes it does not save all and still happily exits.

Of course they may have fixed all this since I downloaded it 6 months ago.

[bsterz]

I just LOVE UltraEdit. It's out-of-the-box ready for php, perl, C, and Lord knows what else. Tho Dreamweaver is nice, they totally dismiss perl. The thing I really love about UltraEdit is that it will let you place the cursor by a curly brace and will high-light the matching curly brace...so cool.

[mylungsarempty]

I am pretty impressed with PHP Expert Editor 3.1... it's shareware, but i may shell out the 35 bucks for it. It's simple and effective. Thankyou for all the feedback on this subject.

[sidyadav]

This thread just tells you that how many different PHP software's you could use.
Almost every PHP editing software is covered here, with atleast 1 person using it.

Wouldn't this be hard for a newbie to decide which one to use, or will the newbie have to try out each and every software mentioned here to see which one fits the best for him?

Anyway, People forgot to link to the software's homepage that they use, which makes harder for a user to try it out, so heres a list of Software's mentioned here linking to their homepage:
PHPedit [phpedit.com]
Zend Studio [zend.com]
HTML-KIT [chami.com]
UltraEdit [ultraedit.com]
DreamWeaver MX [macromedia.com]
EditPlus [editplus.com]
TextPad [textpad.com]
jEdit [jedit.org]
EditPad Lite [editpadpro.com]
EditPad Pro [editpadpro.com]
Nusphere PHPed [nusphere.com]
PHP Expert Editor [ankord.com]
HAPedit [hapedit.free.fr]
Crimson Editor [crimsoneditor.com]
Emacs [gnu.org]

Heres a PHP editor's directory:
[hotscripts.com...]

Sid

[dreamcatcher]

Ah, it sure is nice and warm in Hong Kong. :)

Anyway, I code everything using conText. I have tried some of the others, but didn`t like them much. conText has a nice simple interface which I like. Personal preference though.

:)

[louponne]

am pretty impressed with PHP Expert Editor 3.1... it's shareware, but i may shell out the 35 bucks for it

Yes, I was going to repeat my recommendation, pointing out advantages again, but you all (especially those using textpad-type progs) should really give it a try for a few days. It's definitely worth the $$!

[mogwai]

UltraEdit has my vote, inexpensive, simple to use but very powerful. Not that relevant to php editing but Column mode is one of the best features UEdit has that I haven't seen on many other editors.

[volatilegx]

I've used TextPad for years and will never use anything else :)

Great program.