How does Eclipse PDT compare to NetBeans for PHP development?
I just bought a new computer with Windows 7 and I'm starting to set up a development environment for PHP. Has anyone used both IDEs lately and could make a quick comparison? If you know what major frameworks are supported, that would be great too.
Yes, I switched from Eclipse to Netbeans for PHP development quite recently. And I have to admit - I like NetBeans better. It seems to me more lightweight and stable. It certainly loads faster. And code completion seems to be much better than in Eclipse - it doesn't fail so often, and you can insert hint-comments wherever you wish to specify the types of your variables. Also NetBeans IDE is much simpler than Eclipse. It's probably not as powerful (and it could definately use a few more configuration options), but on the other hand, Eclipse was downright intimidating with its complex system.
Put it this way - if you come from a Windows background (like me), go for NetBeans. If you're a Linux/Unix fan, you'll feel right at home with Eclipse.
Eclipse PHP (PDT) does not come with a working debugger out-of-the-box. You have to download and install at least 2 or 3 other fussy open-source components to make that work. I've never tried NetBeans, but, if you need debugging (stepping through code) and you don't have several days to work through the environment setup hell of Eclipse, that might be the way to go.
I use Eclipse first and work friendly with this .Next I use Netbeans for Java and I use it completely in java and uninstall Eclipse . Next time that I need work with PHP I use Netbeans for this goal and I understood Netbeans code completion better than Eclipse also code highlighting but build , compile,debug and run are better in Eclipse and I think Netbeans increase feature and functionality in future .
