What debugger to use

PHP
1

I am learning PHP, and working on my code.
What easy to use debugger is recommended?

  • I prefer in Linux (Ubuntu) (but win7 can do as well)
  • easy to install and to setup
  • easy to trace variables and set breakpoints
2

Since you’re on linux, open up a terminal and get used to using vi, vim or emacs.

The only breakpoint capable PHP IDE out there I know of is ZendStudio with ZendPlatform. But that’s around $600.

3

And if I give up the breakpoints, remaining with variables tracing, would it change anything?
VI brings just the editing part, not the debugging.

4

Xdebug of cause. It’s free, supports breakpoints, Eclipse and NetBeans have support for it and have “step into”, “step over”, and “watch”. It’s easy to use on Netbeans.

5

I don’t know about the rest of you but my favourite debuggers are as follows:
print / echo
var_dump()
print_r()

Works every time and using notepad++ on a usb dongle makes the whole process very easy with no installed software to rely on.

Of course there is xdebug which I’ve used once or twice but it often crashes notepad++ for some reason.

6

I use eclipse PDT with the Zend debugger which works pretty well for being free.