Ok, so Iām gonna contribute my thoughts here. Iām a DEVELOPER with a business - Iām not happy about spending hours/days trying to figure out an IDE or its debug settings. If itās not fairly intuitive to me, then fuggit-about-it. The same goes for the frameworks Iāve been comparing (Laravel, Iām talking to YOU). The docs need to be accurate and step-by-step. Side note: Laravel failed that test, which is why Iām now converting to Yii 2 and thus, Iām on this forum.
Here is what I expect from an IDE, and if itās a āpaidā version then I expect more:
-
Be intuitive
-
Be accurate with your documentation. I can handle a bit of bad English but if your English is back-a$$-wards then maybe you need to get somebody else to write your docs. And stop drinking vodka if you write them.
-
If you claim you integrate with Yii2, then DO IT! Iām talking about peeking into classes, maybe some code-completion āhintsā, valid āinspectorā checking (Codelobster, Iām talking to YOU), and that sort of thing.
-
Iām also talking to YOU, NuSphere PhpED ā¦ Here is a piece of your documentation --> āWhile PHP SPL, DOM and PDO are builtin into PHP, you can get code completion for them easily. Just download ā¦ā. What? I paid for your product! Why didnāt you include that in the first place? And then your comment "The same way you may get code completion for other libraries, but in this case youād write such interface file yourself. ". Really? Oh, so I pay for your product but I need to write my own interface files. Got itā¦ . You say you support Yii2, yet I see nothing in your Framework docs about it (except your claim that you support it).
-
If you claim you have a debugger and if I PAID for your product then YOU configure the debugger based on my directory and my localhost or my remote (if you support that). Iām tired of squirrely-a$$ debugger instructions that donāt work as the docs say. (Iām talking to YOU again, NuSphere PhpED ā donāt ask me 4 times what my dadgum ādocument rootā, āroot urlā and āroot web dirā is/are. And stop demanding that I put Projects in my dadgum User folder! I donāt want them there).
So ā¦ my acronym is IDHTFT (I-Donāt-Have-Time-For-This).
1) Sublime: Project? what Project? It has hints about āprojectsā in its menu, but I didnāt see anywhere to create a new one. Opened a folder to an existing Yii project. Nothing in particular jumped out which is suspicious because I know there are errors ā I put them there. So IDHTFT.(to be fair, this was after days of testing other IDEs and I was not very forgiving). You might as well use NotePad++ (thatās actually a good product for what it does).
-
NuSphere: Where do I start? Configuring the debugger is like getting Trump to speak truth. No code hints or much else for Yii2 (see above), at least not that I could see. NOTE: Iāve been using NuSphere since 2007. Iām about fed up with it. Itās ok for a $100 text editor, though. IDHTFT ā¦
3) Aptana: Went to the site, did a search for Yii - found nothing anywhere. Didnāt even download it (note: I used it years before on a simple project and it was ājust okā, nothing special). IDHTFTā¦
4) CodeLobster: Ok, I like it. But when it starts giving me syntax or other more serious errors on a fresh āvirginā download of Yii2, then I aināt liking that. I double-checked a couple of the 100ās of programs that it burped on, and there was NOTHING wrong with them ā syntax was fine, brackets all matched, etcā¦ So CL gets a C- grade on that stuff. This one came close to IDHTFT , but I need to cut them a break. Itās not bad, and maybe I screwed up an IDE config that caused it to give those errors. So it could be my fault, but since I followed their doc directions, then that goes back to āthe docsā.
5) PHPStorm: I got nothing bad to say. Ok, itās a bit āginormousā and complex but it does a lot. The errors and warnings it found seem to be very accurate. I have not yet tried the debugger, so Iām wondering if Iāll be disappointed in either the complexity of configuration or the way it works (or doesnāt). But overall, I think this is a good product and I donāt mind spending a buck for a good product.
-
NetBeans 8.1: I like it. The only thing that ticks me off is that I canāt get it configured correctly for phpcs/codesniffer/whatever. Iām sure Iām not reading something correctly, though. This is a wonderful, open-source IDE that does a lot! However, it may freeze up on you from time to time. The only other thing I found is that nobody seems to be supporting it anymore. So that aināt too cool. But hey, I wouldnāt do it for free eitherā¦
Iām on Windows 7 with 16 GB of memory and a pretty fast processor (if you need to ask me why I didnāt use Win Eight or update to Win 10, then donātā¦). I do use Linux on another machine but I want stuff to work on my Windows. If it doesnāt, then just tell me so in your docs. Iām good with that.
I hope someone got something useful out of these comments, but they are just my own experience ā yours may be different (why, I donāt know ā¦). If I seem snarky, itās because Iāve spent about 8 days dealing with comparing frameworks, IDEs, and even a new XAMPP installation that I accidentally installed and which overwrote my local database (fortunately Iām a good boy and have backups). Like I said, Iām a DEVELOPER, not a lover of āall-things-webā. I need my tools to work as documented so that I can run my business!
