I was wondering what is the best development suite I could use that would speed up my PHP development?
My background has been Visual Studio 2008 and I like the functions of loading the entire website and the ability to test code simply by running it from the VS program. Is that possiable with PHP? If so with what editor/suite?
Sorry for the fundimental question but I don’t want to experment I rather just jump in to developing…
IDEs give me a headache. What I do is run a web server on my development system, fetch the latest OpenEMR code from CVS into a working repository, and then also copy that to create a running OpenEMR installation. As I make changes to source modules, I copy them to the running installation for testing. And of course, regularly check the repository for updates by other developers.
Be sure to use a “real” text editor designed for working on source code. EditPad Lite is one free example of that for Windows.
I also use the minimalist approach. I have a local cvs directory where all my editing is done via command line editors such as jed or vim. Then, via a tiny script, my test code is moved to the web folder for testing it. My environment (linux OS) is the OpenEMR Developer Appliance, which can be found here:
I use the opposite model, I like full IDEs like Activestate Komodo with integrated step debugging works on windows and linux. I use BlueFish on linux for easy fixes and Notepad++ on windows. Both are good syntax highlighting editors.
Zend Studio (based on Eclipse) is another full-size IDE that has features similar to Visual Studio. It’s particularly helpful with PHP because it’s made by the same folks.