PHP Edit (Waterproof Sortware)

[stuart]

PHP Edit - Review Page

PHPEdit is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for PHP designed for professional. Including advanced php related tools, powerful debugger and profiler, code beautifier, help integration, real time syntax checker, advanced keyboard templates and much more.

By using PHPEdit you will:

Develop Faster
Because PHPEdit contains several tools to increase your personal productivity like Syntax Highlighting, Code Hint, Code Insight, automatic Code Completion, Keyboard Templates, Quick Marks, Code Browser...

Enhance Quality
Using the debugger you will produce better software because you'll be able to put breakpoints, step inside your code, watch variable content, check call stack and more. Using the profiler, you will tweak your application performances.

Make Your Life Easier
Because PHPEdit is fully customizable you can make it behave the way you want. You will not change the way you work, but you'll work faster and easier because all your tools are just a shortcut away.

Please share your experience and comments with others here....

This is one of those products that tries to be helpful, and fails miserably.

From the very first line of code, this editor did everything it possibly could to make the experience of using it as painful as possible.

When I'm coding, I'm typing straight from brain to page. I'm not thinking "Is the editor going to do this?" I'm thinking "The code should do that."

Not with this editor. Start with something simple:

$var = "This is a string";

Simple enough, you'd probably type it in without thinking about it. And you'd end up with is this:

$var = "this is a quote\";
"
When you start typing the quote, it "helpfully" adds a close quote. So when you - trying to write code, not second-guess some antagonistic piece of software - type in the close quote, semi colon and hit enter, you get the mess presented above.

The entire experience is like that. Random things popping in and out where you least expect them. "Smart" tabs that aren't in the slightest degree smart. Space removal at the end of lines which apparently only removes spaces - not tabs.

In ten minutes, instead of writing ten minutes' worth of code, I wrote perhaps 30 seconds' worth of code and spent the rest of the time fighting the editor.

Applications, especially programming tools, should be designed to shut up, get out of the way and not interfere with the concentration of those using them.

The design of this application, by contrast, is to use every conceivable option to ensure you *cannot* simply write code, that you *have to* concentrate on what the editor itself is doing, and making sure it is not screwing up every single line you write.

That is not a helpful program. It is a program to be avoided at all possible costs. The few things it sort of gets right - code completion and syntax highlighting - are simply not sufficient to suffer through the sheer agony of having to use such a pointlessly hostile tool.

Avoid it at all costs.

[rsleventhal]

While I respect the prior poster's commentary as regards his/her coding habits and the 'battle' done then with PHPEdit, my opinion differs greatly.

I've used a number of programmers IDEs over the years and find the code completion efforts of PHPEdit to be in line with most. PHPEdit's feature set is amazingly customizable and, imnsho, user friendly. I use it as my primary IDE for PHP, HTML, CSS coding, though I do also use Komodo for certain tasks.

For this coder, PHPEdit is a valuable tool, well worth the commercial license fee. Their recent policy of allowing a 30 day fully functional trial makes it a sure thing if you're willing to take a bit of time to get to know the coding environment.

I know programmers that swear by their preferred IDEs, some of which I find unusable. Clearly it is a matter of preference and for me, I prefer PHPEdit.

www.phpedit.com
www.waterproof.fr

Respectfully,
Ray Leventhal
leventhal@swhi.net

[shimonp]

Agree with the first poster. Rather shoot myself in the head. Tried to configure debugger to be used with local installation of osCommerce webshop (php5, osCommerce website, apache and mysql were already configured and worked properly) Spent several hours without success. Manual does not exist (the one that exists when you read it closely missing the most important sections) Only very basic configuration of debugger works. Support forums full of useless advices.

[richinri]

I have been trying out all kinds of php editors/debuggers and I have to say this one REALLY impressed me. To the first reviewer, he obviously didn't know that he could customize the way the editor acts if he doesn't like certain behaviours. Personally I found the hinting greatly sped up my typing and I haven't shut off any of the help actions.
I discovered in my search that many people have PHP EDITORS, not real debuggers. I hardly consider brace matching debugging. This program is a REAL debugger. This is one great, serious program if you are serious about writing and debugging PHP.
While checking out many programs I kept thinking, "But I need this or that." When I checked out this program - it was ALL there and then some.

[veslach]

While some of the code completion is great, others (such as generating a class structure) seem non-existant.

There doesn't seem to be any auto-indentation between {}, [], or (). Yes, it will keep the current indentation, but it doesn't auto-ident between brackets. This is something I appreciate in an IDE.

Keyboard selection is absolutely pathetic. If you're a keyboard user, forget about using CTRL+SHIFT+[arrow key] to mark anything. Apparently this is a mouse friendly/keyboard unfriendly IDE. I think Dreamweaver is overkill on it's stop points, but this is the exact opposite. I.e. if you're wanting to select text inside quotes (double or single, it doesn't matter) forget it... It will stop inside the first quote & after any spaces inside the string, but it won't stop before the ending quote...

|
    |$var = |array( '|hello |world', '|tuesday' );|

| shows where the CTRL+[arrow key] ends & it's the same whether forwards or backwards. As long as you use the mouse to double click 'tuesday' you'll get the text inside the quotes like you were expecting with the keyboard.

I've found the double quoting thing to be quite annoying as well, however I understand it's a standard feature in a lot of IDEs these days... however, most IDEs have an option to turn this off (as well as the bracket completion - this also can drive one insane).

If you're a mouse user this IDE is probably perfect for you. If you're a keyboard user - stay away.