More than a year ago I got convinced by a colleague to leave my favorite text editor behind and make the switch to an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for PHP project development.
In my opinion there is only one IDE for PHP: Eclipse. PDT, PHPEclipse, Aptana Studio or Zend Studio are all more or less Eclipse plugins that convert the Eclipse IDE in a PHP development environment. Once you get used to it, your projects will benefit one way or another.
In reality, I still use NotePad++ a lot. It may be best to still link PHP files on your OS to an editor because IDE’s are not made for quick edits.
But, in case your in an upgrade process or just want to improve your set-up, read this article:
Getting Started with Eclipse PHP Development Tools (PDT)
It could have definitely saved me some time as I took exactly the same steps and use the same plugins. Besides the Zend Debugger that is, as I haven’t found a use for it yet.
I have only one wish: a simplification of the whole Eclipse & plugins project structure. I still don’t understand why I can’t easily upgrade between versions and why so many upgrade options are available. For me, the upgrade process has only proven to be useful for bug fixes and plugin upgrades.
Related post:
How to configure PDT