This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, “Use jEdit to Edit Your PHP”
So is this kind of CMS? (newbie question)
Too bad al those nifty IDE’s don’t support vim-like editing. I want to do a d$ and gg=G, does anyone know of an IDE that does support vim-like editing?
Wow that folding is a great idea 
I hope ultra-edit adds that functionality sometime soon!
No it’s a text-editor (when used with PHP)
Hey Scott,
I seem to be having trouble locating and downloading the updated PHP Syntax Highlighting you have mentioned.
The system cannot locate the object specified. Error processing resource ‘http://community.jedit.org/xmode.dtd’
Have you looked at eclipse with the PHPEclipse.de plugin?
Developers may want to check out the SQuirrel SQL client as well. It’s also written in Java and either comes with or can be set up with JDBC drivers for MySQL and PostgreSQL. There are many plug-ins available for it too, but I have not tried any. I mainly use it to get the database schema, SQL statement execution, and a grid of the SQL results.
I used to use jEdit exclusively for PHP development, but I found it too buggy and eventually dumped it for TextPad and Eclipse. That was over a year ago so the bugs may be gone. TextPad and jEdit are great for quick edits, but if I’m going to be doing extended development I usually use a bigger IDE like PHP Designer or Zend Studio.
On Linux I love both Quanta and Bluefish as well as Zend Studio and Eclipse. Now, if anyone can tell me about a drag and drop SCP client on Linux (ala WinSCP) I’d be happy as a clam
I used jEdit for awhile developing PHP, and I enjoyed the plugins and visual appeal of the program, but I was annoyed by the slowness of the application (at least on my system). I’ve since enjoyed working with DEV-PHP, PHP Designer, and Scite in Windows, and Quanta, Bluefish, and Kate in Linux (as well as Vim).
I have been using jedit for 2 years now (since I dumped Quanta and KDE) for almost every programming job that needs heavy editing and cannot be handled by mc or nano, that is non-trivial PHP, CSS, XHTML, C++, lately Python (using it to change a few lines would be like killing mosquitoes with a sledgehammer :D), and I’m happy with it, as it is highly configurable and can be easily turned into a programming IDE. I have tried also Bluefish, gphpedit and Screem, but they can’t match Jedit in terms of functionality. Strictly for PHP editing, Zend Studio rocks, though, but it’s somewhat slower than jedit (at least it was at the time it lost the race for my editor of choice :))…
I am happy to see my article published. Here are a few corrections and additions:
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jEdit has word completion, which is a rudimentary form of code completion. The word completion is guided by the edit mode, which also controls syntax highlighting. The edit mode(s) that I uploaded to the jEdit site are no longer available. They have been replaced by the edit mode that is available from the jEdit Community site at the link above, i.e., http://community.jedit.org/?q=node/view/1988. Updates are available from the same page. These updates are primarily the work of Daniel Hahler. I worked with him on some of the earlier versions, and I occasionally still contribute, as does Matthieu Casanova. Eventually, a new version of the edit mode will make it into the CVS for jEdit.
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Folding is not unique to jEdit (e.g., I’ve seen it in Vim). To see an example of fold markers take a look at the changelog (http://www.jedit.org/CHANGES43.txt) for the current development version of jEdit. (Note the buffer local properties lines at the bottom of the file; this is explained in the user’s guide at Customizing jEdit | Buffer-Local Properties.) The folding options can be extended by adding plugins such as:
CommentFolder (http://plugins.jedit.org/plugins/?CommentFolder)
ConfigurableFoldHandler (http://plugins.jedit.org/plugins/?ConfigurableFoldHandler), and
LazyFolds (http://plugins.jedit.org/plugins/?LazyFolds). -
The new, development version of jEdit requires at least version 1.4 of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). I had no problem running jEdit in the latest JRE, i.e., Update 1 of Java 2 Standard Edition Runtime Environment 5 (also known as version 1.5).
I’ve been using editplus for over three years. I’ve never had a problem and it does most of the stuff jedit does.
Now, if anyone can tell me about a drag and drop SCP client on Linux (ala WinSCP) I’d be happy as a clam
No need for an scp drag and drop client on Linux. You already have it.
Just run Konqueror and type
ssh://ip of your server
You will be prompted for username and password and you owe me a beer for the invaluable tip…
jEdit seems really slow to me as an app. I use BBEDIT on the Mac.
I used HomeSite for a couple of years, but then somehow got to try Zend Studio.
Zend Studio has syntax highlighting (duh), instant syntax-checking (works kind of like the automatic spell check in MSWord), and a little pop-ups for HTML as well as php functions and variables (even the ones you’ve defined yourself!).
The PHP manual is built-in, coming from Zend and all. You can also install apache/php/mysql in the Zend installation, for various things to play with.
Of course it has tons of other functions as well, these are the ones I can think of right now that I no longer can live without.
And finally, it comes at a low price, $100, which as good as everyone can afford.
I’m also a BBEdit user - and while I own a couple of beefy G4 desktops for , I do some couch-coding on an old Pismo Powerbook (G3/400). My first impressions of JEdit are pretty positive, and it doesn’t seem sluggish - even on my venerable Pismo. It does take more time to launch though.
I really love some little things like being able to spec a background color for syntax coloring, and the plethor of plugins… very nice. I wish I could add PHP syntax checking to BBEdit that easily. I haven’t experienced any instability either.
Things that would take some getting used to are the occasional un-Mac-like interface elements (open and save dialogs for example), and some odd ways that the app seems to have been adapted to OS X, like the way the app handles closing the last document window (the app stays running, but all upper menus vanish except for the first “JEdit” menu). I have to quit and relaunch to get a document window again.
Overall, not bad. Not bad at all.
From the pricing page…
$299
And education is 25% off (much less than $200), if you’re eligible.
I’d love to know where you got your copy from!
Try PHP Designer 2005. It’s free and very, very good.
JEdit is cool.
I started used it when I used Windows/Linux to use the same editor on both enviroments about one year ago.
Now I’m only using ``Linux" and I really like it (JEdit).
If you are a Debian user just add to /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/jedit ./
deb-src http://dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/jedit ./
then
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install jedit
and you are done!
and for people complaining that’s slow,
well on my celeron 400 it runs smoothly and I don’t see any slowness.