Move Over Eclipse. NetBeans 6 Rocks!

Ok, I admit the title is a bit inflammatory to Eclipse fans. But after working with NetBeans 6 over the last week, I have to say I am very impressed. This is not simply a minor upgrade, as is so common in IDEs these days even when they are given a new major version number. Quite the contrary, NetBeans 6 is a major new release, and a major improvement over NetBeans 5.5.

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NetBeans 6.5 review

During the weekend, I tried out NetBeans 6.5 and its new PHP related functionality. I had earlier seen some quick shots of how the support was, and it seemed like a good contender for big names like Zend Studio.

What features does NetBeans 6.5 have for PHP developers? How does it compare against Zend Studio for Eclipse?

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Call for proposals of requirements for a complete support of Phar archives in Eclipse PDT

As PHP 5.3 is marching towards the final release, Eclipse PDT's next version needs to support its new features. Two major additions to PHP 5.3 are namespaces and bundling the Phar extension. Especially used in combination, libraries could/should be distributed like Jars in the Java world.

The Phar extension provides a way to put entire PHP libraries or applications into a single file called a "Phar" (PHP Archive) for easy distribution and installation. Phar archives are best characterized as a convenient way to group several files into a single file. As such, a Phar archive provides a way to distribute a complete PHP library or application in a single file and run it from that file without the need to extract it to disk. Additionally, Phar archives can be executed by PHP as easily as any other file, both on the command line and from a web server. Phar is kind of like a thumb drive for PHP applications.

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Set Up Eclipse PDT 2.0 On Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede)

This is a howto about setting up a proffessional PHP IDE using Eclipse by hand. I'll be using Eclipse PDT for PHP support. The PDT project provides a PHP Development Tools framework for the Eclipse platform. This project encompasses all development components necessary to develop PHP and facilitate extensibility. It leverages the existing Web Tools Project in providing developers with PHP capabilities. We will have in the end features like subversion support, edit remote files, database development, debugging and more.

Debugging PHP using Eclipse and PDT

The PHP Development Tools (PDT) plug-in, when installed with Eclipse Europa, gives you that ability to quickly write and debug PHP scripts and pages. PDT supports two debugging tools: XDebug and the Zend Debugger. Learn how to configure PDT for debugging PHP scripts and discover which perspectives you use when taking closer looks at your scripts.

This tutorial demonstrates how to configure the PHP Development Tools (PDT) plug-in for Eclipse to debug your PHP scripts. It also introduces the perspectives you'll use (namely, PHP Debug) when taking closer looks at your PHP scripts.

Using Eclipse+PDT as a PHP IDE

There are a lot PHP Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) on the market, some freeware, some pretty expensive. In this tutorial you will learn how to install and use Eclipse + PDT.

Build Web services with PHP in Eclipse

This tutorial shows how to build Web services in PHP using the PHP Development Tools (PDT) plug-in. The PDT project was unveiled in September 2007 and was followed by V1.0.2 in January 2008. The PDT project provides first-class abilities to edit, debug, and deploy PHP applications in the Eclipse IDE.

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NetBeans extension makes simple work of PHP

"Arriving with the NetBeans 6.1 release last week was the NetBeans IDE Early Access for PHP. This provides a complete PHP integrated development environment hosted in NetBeans, re-using the infrastructure NetBeans has already employed for Java and Ruby."

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netBeans 6.1 Final Released

The guys from netBeans have released the final version of netBeans 6.1 after ironing out a lot of bugs. Its an awesome release and the speed increase is pretty nb-logo-frontpage awesome. NetBeans 6.1 is not just about performance improvement but also has a few new features along the way.

Installing the Eclipse PHP IDE

If you've been looking for a decent PHP editor and don't want to hassle of leaving your favourite IDE, you don't have to look any further than PHPEclipse. This article outlines how to install the plugin to your existing Eclipse environment.