Comments on: PHP Development with Linux http://www.alfreido.com/2008/03/php-development-with-linux/ The rants of Ben Thomson Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:10:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Ben Thomson http://www.alfreido.com/2008/03/php-development-with-linux/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Ben Thomson Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:46:51 +0000 http://www.alfreido.com/2008/03/25/php-development-with-linux/#comment-9 Congratulations on being the first comment on my blog, <strong>fhisch</strong>. (apart from all the spam comments I have to delete every day). May you wear that badge with honor when this blog, admittedly unlikely, ever becomes popular. I do believe Zend Studio for Eclipse was built mainly towards team development. As I stated, the Subversion support is fantastic, and really encourages that team collaboration. However, I know that for the freelancer, or a small business, they use Subversion only for version control, not collaboration and instead use FTP to upload and edit files. I did find out eventually how to do FTP, but it was neither obvious, nor streamlined for ease of use, which I think is a terrible choice considering nearly every other IDE out there does FTP properly. I should probably mention since this article was written, I have discovered the <strong>Aptana Plugin for Eclipse</strong>, which brings across Aptana's FTP support, and their FTP system is fantastic. When setup properly, it is just as intiutive as Dreamweaver. However, it doesn't discount the fact that Zend Studio should've had the proper support in the first place. Congratulations on being the first comment on my blog, fhisch. (apart from all the spam comments I have to delete every day). May you wear that badge with honor when this blog, admittedly unlikely, ever becomes popular.

I do believe Zend Studio for Eclipse was built mainly towards team development. As I stated, the Subversion support is fantastic, and really encourages that team collaboration. However, I know that for the freelancer, or a small business, they use Subversion only for version control, not collaboration and instead use FTP to upload and edit files.

I did find out eventually how to do FTP, but it was neither obvious, nor streamlined for ease of use, which I think is a terrible choice considering nearly every other IDE out there does FTP properly. I should probably mention since this article was written, I have discovered the Aptana Plugin for Eclipse, which brings across Aptana’s FTP support, and their FTP system is fantastic. When setup properly, it is just as intiutive as Dreamweaver. However, it doesn’t discount the fact that Zend Studio should’ve had the proper support in the first place.

]]> By: fhisch http://www.alfreido.com/2008/03/php-development-with-linux/comment-page-1/#comment-8 fhisch Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:49:06 +0000 http://www.alfreido.com/2008/03/25/php-development-with-linux/#comment-8 I've been using Eclipse for a while, and recently switched to Zend for Eclipse. When I first started using Eclipse, the hardest part for me to get used to was the workflow, though now it feels a lot more natural and even sensible. I agree that Zend for Eclipse has its flaws, but after all the research my fellow devs and I did it has proven to be the overall best tool for a team of devs. I'd like to point out that direct FTP editing can, in fact, be done. In the PHP perspective, there should - by default - be a Remote Systems tab next to a PHP Projects tab. Remote Systems is essentially the local/ftp file browser. After adding an ftp as a remote system, you can either browse to a file and open it directly, or do what I usually do - right-click the httpdocs directory and create a remote project. One thing I'd like to be able to do, (and am not sure if the Eclipse workflow currently allows for), is have a remote project for direct ftp editing AND have the same project checked in to the SVN. The code assist features certainly have room for improvement, but they do their job at least as well as they need to. They help significantly with debugging, and I usually don't have to search through the php documentation if I can't remember the exact name of a function I need, or the order in which it takes parameters, etc. The same goes for my own functions or classes defined in an included file. I still use VIM from time to time, but mostly for minor edits. The ability to perform regex search/replace has also proven helpful at times. For complicated projects, it seems to me that an IDE such as Zend for Eclipse (or even simply Eclipse with the PDT plugin) is a must. I’ve been using Eclipse for a while, and recently switched to Zend for Eclipse. When I first started using Eclipse, the hardest part for me to get used to was the workflow, though now it feels a lot more natural and even sensible. I agree that Zend for Eclipse has its flaws, but after all the research my fellow devs and I did it has proven to be the overall best tool for a team of devs.

I’d like to point out that direct FTP editing can, in fact, be done. In the PHP perspective, there should – by default – be a Remote Systems tab next to a PHP Projects tab. Remote Systems is essentially the local/ftp file browser. After adding an ftp as a remote system, you can either browse to a file and open it directly, or do what I usually do – right-click the httpdocs directory and create a remote project. One thing I’d like to be able to do, (and am not sure if the Eclipse workflow currently allows for), is have a remote project for direct ftp editing AND have the same project checked in to the SVN.

The code assist features certainly have room for improvement, but they do their job at least as well as they need to. They help significantly with debugging, and I usually don’t have to search through the php documentation if I can’t remember the exact name of a function I need, or the order in which it takes parameters, etc. The same goes for my own functions or classes defined in an included file.

I still use VIM from time to time, but mostly for minor edits. The ability to perform regex search/replace has also proven helpful at times.

For complicated projects, it seems to me that an IDE such as Zend for Eclipse (or even simply Eclipse with the PDT plugin) is a must.

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