Hi All,

I use Dreamweaver CS6 to write/edit both ASP (classic) and PHP. The new Adobe Dreamweaver CC is now subscription based, which I think really stinks (I hate subscription based software).

Just wondering what is considered industry standard tool(s) for PHP? Is there a standard? If not, what are some of the more popular tools for this? Do people use tools that have FTP built in, or another piece of software for getting the files up to the server?

Really appreciate any feedback - I consider myself a pretty solid DW user, but sort of new to PHP - so trying to figure out what works for people....if most people use DW, then I guess I need to suck it up and subscribe.

Thoughts? (thanks in advance)

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Do people use tools that have FTP built in, or another piece of software for getting the files up to the server?

It's largely personal or based on choices made by the company. I use NetBeans as the IDE and FileZilla to handle FTP stuff. Dani uses Zend Studio, if I recall correctly.

Good editors support at least syntax coloring / highlighting for popular tools (PHP, Javascript, CSS, SQL, configuration files), indent code, suggest syntax, check parentheses, support various character sets, organize files etc. I use Notepad++ on Windows and KWrite on Linux.

IDEs are a step forward by also helping you to organize projects, teams, versions etc but tend to be more complex. I use Eclipse and Netbeans (both on Windows and Linux).

All above is open source and cost 0.

Member Avatar for iamthwee

Definitely sublime text 2. Once you go sublime you don't go back to anything else - Fact.

It depends on what operating system you are using. I'm on a Mac and I have two tools I use when programming/making websites. The first one I'm using is called Coda 2 and is an awesome app which in my opinion should be used by ever web developer. There are so many features built in and it have a live preview function. Try it out and you realize that you just have to use that tool. The thing to remember with Coda is that it's only for Mac.

Coda 2 is only focussed on web devlopment and even though it's awesome at doing such (I'm using it for HMTL, CSS) I will still use Sublime text 2 for all my other programming. I use it for PHP, Javascript and Python and I have only good things to say about it. It's just so clean, so simple so powerful. And it's cross platform compatible.

Member Avatar for diafol

Netbeans, Aptana, Bluefish, Sublime2, DW CS5, Notepad++

They all get the job done. Try them all and pick the one you like.

Thanks all - I've loved DW since it does all this, and has "plug-in" extensions - of which I have purchased many - which is the only thing making it hard to break that tie with Adobe.

I guess the things mentioned all assume straight hand coding from scratch....I'll have to check out some of the things mentioned - thanks everyone for the input

BTW - I'm in a Windows environment.

Don't forget the portables, just in case you need to write codes while in-flight.. I use either nginx or xampp portable for the server. Eclipse and notepad++ as editor. All of them fit in one little flash drive. On a desktop environment, I practically tried all of the things mentioned above.

I always use notepad++ whenever I get annoyed by auto-completion. Notepad++ is pretty cool I think. I am not a very big fan of DW kind of editor. I believe simple and nice highlight is all I need for PHP and something that is not trying to auto-complete my codes. But for writing applications in various languages, eclipse and NetBeans are my choices ( at least for me).

For completeness: PhpStorm. Paid, but a very good tool IMO.

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