Eclipse: The best IDE so far, now PHP Friendly
Eclipse it’s the leading open source development environment there is.
It had choppy, convoluted, hard to install PHP support. That was 6 months ago.
Now the PHP project for PHP, or PDT is truly useful, it has a working build that just works, no more configuration editing nightmares. No more forum posting, reading, and fighting Eclipse to make it work with PHP, it now just works.
Eclipse it’s not perfect. But so far I have yet to find a replacement. Netbeans, too slow in Windows. Aptana, it’s Eclipse for Javascript with some cool features, but it does not follow PHP classes with the click of a mouse. And most other IDEs are either too expensive (IDEA) or not cross platform (CodeGears.)
Only Zend has a good idea in Zend Studio. They leverage Eclipse and the PDT, and then add their own extras, but at $399 each, it is truly overpriced since there are not that many extras.
So yes, it is Eclipse land over here, now not just for Java any more. I wish we had an alternative developed in native code and cross platform! But so far Eclipse has proven reliable, feature rich, and always evolving. And all of this for free on your Mac or PC!
P.S. Eclipse image courtesy of Kor Bras, licensed through Creative Commons.
