Programmers notepad for me
#1 latest Zend Studio (if it wasn’t for all the damn crashes…)
#2 NetBeans (if it wasn’t for the damn auto-complete messing up all the time)
Both of them need some way to customize the auto-format code functionality (they have it, but not perfect)
Komodo IDE, is what I use and prefer.
Netbeans has a nice PHP package.
i think netbeans or eclipse are equally cool because they are free! I prefer eclipse because the name sounds better… hahaha
Your website project folder needs to be anywhere under the root web folder of whatever local web server you are using. (I am using XAMPP).
When you create a new Netbeans project it prompts you for the project folder and the index file locations.
If you need to change them after you have created a project -
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Right-click your project under the Project tab (near top left hand corner) of the NB window and then click Properties.
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Adjust the Project Folder and Index file values in the “Sources” and “Run Configuration” panes in “Properties”
These setting need to be correct for NB to find your website’s index file when you click the right green arrow “Run Project” icon on the top toolbar.
As an alternative, you can still view your website outside of NB by pointing any browser to your local web server’s url for your website.
I’ve never tried NetBeans so I’ll give that a go, but recently I have been using TextWrangler for PHP, SQL. CSS and HTML.
agrees with kenquad. I also use Netbeans.
I will download the trial version of Dreamweaver now and try it. However, which IDE is specialized for PHP development? does the Zend Eclipse?
I’ve used just about all of them at one point and currently I’ve settled on Coda for Mac and either Netbeans or Aptana for everything else (I use Netbeans for Java on all platforms).
Probably most pros will tout Zend Eclipse as one of the best. But I have to throw in my support for the new version of Dreamweaver (CS5) which has a slew of new features specifically designed for PHP coders. Auto-completion, automatic syntax checking, code-hints and you can even get it to scan whatever framework or CMS you’re working in to generate code-hints specific to them.
I use Netbeans on a day to day basis. The only few niggles i have is the “mark occurrences” option and the fact auto-complete sometimes decides it has short-term memory loss (only very occasionally for me though)
In regards to just editing a quick one-off file I will use Notepad++ for its speed and simplicity. Oh, I also use Notepad++ when creating my XHTML template files because Netbeans doesnt support Zen Coding properly =[
A few more:
Geany (www.geany.org) small and fast IDE featuring
Syntax highlighting for C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl and more
Code folding
Symbol name auto-completion
Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
Available for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS X,
AIX v5.3, Solaris Express and Windows
gedit editor part of Linux Gnome, simple like Windows notepad++
provides syntax highlighting for php, html and more
code::blocks IDE designed for c/c++, fortran etc, but also provides
syntax highligthing for php, html and many more,
advanced project features for compiled languages
(www.codeblocks.org)
Available for Linux and Windows (and Mac maybe?)
Zend Studio is just all-around less buggy than standard Eclipse. You also get nice code hints for build-in functions in addition to those that reside within the project namespace. The other thing I really liked having was remote connection. Its just a more solidified experience than the standard eclipse package. Really, though Zend is very similar to eclipse, considering its built on it. I just took to the little things I don’t have in the standard Eclipse edition. Zend Studio rarely ever crashed on me, I can’t say that for Eclipse ganymede/gelileo/helious. I’ve run into a bunch of issues running the new helious version on a pc. So much so I just went back to galileo. The cursor rarely plays catch-up in Zend Studio also. Not sure if everyone has ran into this issue, but something when your typing, the cursor will just freeze. Than a few seconds later what you typed will finally appear. That is so annoying, didn’t really have that issue with Zend Studio. I run into that issue at least once a day with standard Eclipse.
One more for Eclipse.
Though, I tend to use notepad++ (pc) or bbedit (mac) for roughing out code and thoughts.
The bulk of my work though I use Eclipse.
Zend is nice, used it my last job, but its not open source. If it was I would probably use that. Actually, if the latest version was compatible with tiger I would purchase it for home use. Can’t even get the trial version to work with tiger.
I’ve used Aptana and Netbeans, don’t really like either one in comparison to good ol Eclipse.
Dreamweaver, I wouldn’t be caught dead with. There is no reason to use Dreamweaver if your not using the wysiwyg view to some extent. There are so many other packages out there more suitable for programming than Dreamweaver.
I use Eclipse PDT, but the FTP functionality (supplied by Aptana) is completely useless. I suppose I just haven’t had the time recently to start playing around with other IDEs, and a lot of them are commercial nowadays.
PHPEd
Uestudio
I’ve been using IntelliJ on & off for a handful of years for Java stuff, but only recently switched from Eclipse+PDT for PHP.
I’ve just downloaded NetBeans, it seems to be OK but I have faced a problem. when I want to run the application the following is displayed:
The webpage cannot be found
I think it is because the PhpProject1 is not located in the server folder, it is located in the netbeans folder. How can I change that?
I have heard good things about Eclipse, but only used it for Java development myself. However it has worked perfectly as an IDE, and I assume that the same basics is used for the PHP part.
But for PHP I just use my good old BBEdit 
Also Netbeans vs Eclipse is really about preference, try both and see what works for you. I believe both are very good IDE’s.