My development environment

Published on Sunday, 16 December 2007.

Some of my comrades at work look at me in awe (alright, more like with a "WTF? are you insane" stare) when I tell them that my preferred php ide is Notepad++ (plus one of the proggy fonts). I do use gVim too, when I'm on debian (with fluxbox!).

I wonder, is that really unusual? xD

If I couple my tabbed Notepad++ interface with 2 or 3 explorer windows, I have all I need for web development. I don't think I have to mention Firefox, and all the incredible extensions available. I really don't. This post mentions some of the essential Firefox add-ons, and some that I didn't know at the time I read it.

I know that Zend Studio, APtana, PHP Designer, or PHP Eclipse (this has a specific name I don't remember), are one of the tools I should be using according to the majority of my fellow programmers. However, all I want is syntax coloring, and perhaps a debugger. So yeah, I'm looking for a minimalist editor that provides debugging facilities for PHP. xD