Good IDE for web development with built-in compilers/debuggers?

[mysteriousmonkey29]

Hello,

I am looking for a new IDE. I am currently using netbeans to develop a website in php/mysql. I like a lot of things about netbeans, but I don't like that it doesn't come with built in compilers/debuggers. You have to manually go and add/link them on a language-by-language basis. This isn't too bad in theory, but sometimes it doesn't work like it should, which can cause a huge headache. I had a of a time getting a debugger to work for php. I am now adding javascript/jquery to the website, and discovered that the debugger I already set up doesn't work with them (only php). I don't want to go through the headache of finding/linking another one if I can avoid it. So I'm in the market for a new IDE.

I also have previously used vim. I really like code coloring, and the ability to do everything from the keyboard with a million customizable shortcuts. However, I miss the real time error detection and debugger-integration in most IDEs.

 

Here's what I care about:

High priority features

-can run on windows (currently running windows 7, and will update to 10 eventually)

-can choose between mouse or keyboard as main input method (like gvim)

-free, or at least only a one time fee (as opposed to a subscription fee)

-black background, with automatic code coloring

-works with PHP/MySQL, HTML/CSS, and Javascript/Jquery

-comes with compilers/debuggers, or at least is easier than netbeans to link them

 

Lower priority features (not necessary, but would be nice)

-work with other languages--C,C++,Python,Java, etc.

-code completion/automatic variable renaming, and that kind of thing

-integration with version control software

-code minimap (like in sublime text)

-cross platform (linux as well as windows)

 

I've looked at a few options, and here are the best I've found so far:

good IDEs: visual studio, IntelliJ, Netbeans, Aptana Studio, CodeLobster

good editors (if I give up on the IDE requirement): gvim, sublime text, emacs, github atom

It also looks like it might be possible to do some kind of custom crossover. For example, I found this: https://code.google.com/archive/p/vivim/, which is apparently a plugin for visual studio that incorporates vim.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions?

[Ingolme]

What you're asking for does not exist, to my knowledge. You can find a good back-end IDE, you can probably find a decent front-end code editor, but there isn't an IDE that mixes them together because the architectures and environments for front-end and back-end development are very different from each other.

The most complete IDEs I can think of for PHP are Netbeans and Eclipse, but both of them were originally built for Java programming, so the PHP support is not perfect. I think Eclipse can integrate with version control, I haven't checked for that in Netbeans.

For front end development specifically, a popular editor is Brackets. It is built with code completion for front end languges like HTML, CSS and Javascript and has a browser preview button. I'm not sure of all the features because I don't use it.

Nobody has built compilers or debuggers for front end languages that I'm aware of and the reason is pretty clear to me: Browsers are updating all the time, the very best environment to compile and debug front-end languages is the browser itself. It would be a nightmare to maintain an independent front-end compiler/debugger because it would have to be updated every time any browser has an update. Browsers have built in tools for debugging Javascript, monitoring server requests and analyzing HTML elements and the CSS rules that are applied to them.

[mysteriousmonkey29]

Ok, thanks for the info. That's a very interesting point about front-end debugging. I guess I'll look more into built in browser debuggers/tools, and then let that inform my decision of which IDE to use.

 

Thanks!

[justsomeguy]

You might look into PHPStorm, that's what we primarily use at work..

[mysteriousmonkey29]

Thanks, although it appears that PhpStorm and other jetbrains IDEs like IntelliJ require subscription fees, and that their community versions have very little language support. So I think they're out (which is too bad because I've heard good things).

[behzad]

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