jEdit is great! I was a convert from PHP Designer 2005 (which is a very good program)
But jEdit seems to have more screen space!! i like!! Also jEdit has this Quick notepad thingy where you can jot down notes, to-dos, don’t-forgets, its so simple just super. I love that totally!
Initially tried jEdit probably 3-4 months ago, absolutely hated it. The syntax hightlight colors was so ugly (sorry developers) and no tabs!? Turns out both can be added/modified via plugins, Editor Scheme and Buffer Tabs respectively. Theres plenty of plugins to be downloaded thru the plugin manager directly on the app itself, very convenient indeed.
Thanks, great article. Without the step-by-step walkthrough I doubt I would have had the patience to try and figure it all out.
Now that I’ve been using it for a couple of days, jEdit’s definately my new favourite editor (I was using Dreamweaver MX, but it comes with a hefty price tag for what it is).
It certainly has everything I need, including the things that have been missing or poorly implemented in many of the other editors.
My essential requirements, specifically directory search and replace, syntax highlighting, folding (a great carry-over from Visual Studio), project organisation and browsing, decent screen-space, tabbed windowing, class wizard, extensibility, great price (free), etc, are all here, plus much more than I ever thought I’d need.
The only dislikes I’ve found so far are the slightly boring interface, the slightly steeper learning curve, and the need to download the J2RE 1.4 first, but nevertheless very much worth the effort.
I’ll definitely be downloading some more plug-ins, and doing the bulk of my editing on this one.
I completely agree with you on using jEdit for PHP.
My system for editing consists of jEdit with the ftp, php_parser, and class_browser plugins installed.
The way that from the docked file system browser window on the right you can load ftp filesystems as though they were local is a real boon.
The class browser plugin does what it says on the tin, it allows you to browse variables and functions in a script easily.
The hypersearch feature is also a must-have. As well as the ability to easily breakup the screen to look at different files simultanious and flick between then using the buffer dropdown list.
Any hardcore php programmer would be hard-pressed not to fall in love with jEdit.
PHP Designer 2005 is IMHO a very good alternative. It’s free and have lots of features, though lacking in remote debugging features (which is the only reason why I would ever need a PHP editor besides Dreamweaver).
BTW for real debugging I suggest WaterProof’s PHPEdit, though it’s not free but really good, with solid debugging support with NuSphere’s DBG.
The standard edition is $99 and the pricing is displayed pretty clearly under the $299 pro edition. You don’t get all the bells and whistles, code snippets etc, but you get the software. I downloaded the eval version and it’s great, but with all the fantastic ‘free’ tools, I’m still not convinced that even the $100 is worth paying.
Great editor! Pitty that SupperAbbrevs plugin hasn’t been mentioned… Check this tutorial http://taat.pl/en/jedit to see jEdit in action and download some stuff
There is another library for spell checking called JOrtho at http://jortho.sourceforge.net which can highlight the wrongly spelled words. Can it be used with JEdit?
