What IDE to use?

[ultimate99]

For html, css, php, python, databases, what IDE do you guys use, preferably open source? 

[Andre S. Veteran]

It's funny you mention that

The article discusses visual programming tools (such as UML or WYSIWYG UI editors) versus text-based tools, so I don't see the relevance. Probably all these "old-school coders" write all their code in Visual Studio.

The point is, if Microsoft's own elite programmers don't use IDE's like Visual Studio, what does that say about their efficacy?

The article never said or implied that.

[Max Norris]

As far as installing X goes, it's very tempting to do so in order to circumvent the windows console. It's a lot of effort though when I can just as easily run a real X window session on Arch.

You do know you can just replace the console yea? Plenty of them to choose from. Not Cmd vs Bash vs PowerShell vs whatever else, but the actual console that you interact with. You like to tout Linux's flexibility, yet never seem to show any inclination to do the same thing on another OS and just write it off as "inflexible." You're not stuck with what comes out of the box, change it up, you're allowed to do that. Which you should, as I agree, the out-of-the box one is pretty weak, at best. Built for speed.. the usability takes a nosedive though.

For me anyway, the X server is for running remote GUI applications off of a *Nix box without dealing with the hassles/performance of a VNC-like session. A few different X servers you can pick from as well. Obviously unnecessary for local stuff.

[simplezz]

Don't you use makefiles or some build system, or do you actually invoke the compiler manually everytime you compile your project?

Is that a serious question? :laugh:

 

If you do use a build system, how is that not "abstracting away" the tools that you use

It absolutely is abstracting away from the compiler. However, not to the degree with which IDE's tend to do it.

My preferred build system, GNU Autotools, is still very close to the metal so to speak. The M4 macros are only light wrappers around the compiler and make. One still needs to understand the macros, parameters, perl, makefiles, and what they all do.

For instance, if I want to compile my program to target a specific architecture I have to know how the compiler works:

../configure CFLAGS='-m32 -march=atom -O2 -s -DRELEASE -Wall -ansi -pedantic' --prefix=/usr --target=i686-pc-linux-gnu

That being said, I would never advise a programmer to use a build system, even a lightly abstracted one like the Autotools, unless they first had a strong understanding of the underlying compiler and associated tools. For without that knowledge, the programmer is operating in the dark.

And don't forget, an IDE doesn't just abstract away the details of the compiler, but also the build system, debugger, and all the rest. It can make someone completely dependent on a specific IDE suite. No doubt that's what a company like Microsoft wants - Vendor lock-in.

 

and what difference is there from using the IDE as a build system? Can you give a concrete example of something you can do or are more likely or more apt to do by using a collection of different tools rather than using an integrated development environment?

Well that's quite a broad question. First though, I'd say it affords the programmer greater flexibility in that he's able to easily replace one tool with another more suitable to the task at hand. He can mix and match as he sees fit. If he doesn't like the build system, rip it out and use a different one. Or how about the compiler? Debugger? Some IDE's do allow you to select those components, but other's don't. I see that as inflexible.

Secondly, a program dedicated to a single task will usually perform it better than one that tries to be a jack of all trades, master of none. A dedicated editor like Vim or emacs will always be superior to that provided by an IDE simply by virtue of the fact that the editor is the sole focus of the program. I suppose you'll want an example no doubt. Okay, how would you put quotations around every line in a file in your IDE text editor (we're talking about OOTB)? In Vim, I'd type the command

:%s/\(^\|$\)/\"/g

That's it.

Or perhaps global substitution:

:%s/foo/bar/g

go to line 1028:

G 1028

jump back ten words:

10b

Delete the next eighteen lines:

d18j

Search for the next instance of the word the cursor is currently on:

*

Run an external shell utility to calculate how many words are in the current file:

:! wc %

dump a list of a directory's files into the current document:

:r ! ls -1

get a webpage:

:r ! w3m http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi -dump

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do in a dedicated text editor. That applies to others tools too. Master of one, not jack of all trades, master of none.

 

Also, I would argue that having to switch between applications is loss of productivity in itself, and a good IDE allows you to hotkey everything you need all the time.

Except we don't have to switch between applications. I can run everything from inside Vim if I like, Or I can switch to another Screen window with a single keystroke.

[simplezz]

The article discusses visual programming tools (such as UML or WYSIWYG UI editors) versus text-based tools, so I don't see the relevance. Probably all these "old-school coders" write all their code in Visual Studio.

The first part discusses Graphical programming tools such as Visual Studio. The first quotation was:

I will fight you if you try to take away my text editor," said Don Box, a Microsoft distinguished engineer.

Notice he says text editor, not IDE.

 

The article never said or implied that.

The article absolutely implies that:

Microsoft Corp. has done more to popularize graphical programming than any other vendor. The company's development tools, led by Visual Basic and Visual Studio, have been used by millions of software developers over the past two decades.

But during a revealing and often humorous panel discussion on the future of programming at last week's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft's own superstar developers espoused their loyalty to old-school methods of coding software.

"I will fight you if you try to take away my text editor," said Don Box, a Microsoft distinguished engineer.

[simplezz]

You do know you can just replace the console yea? Plenty of them to choose from. Not Cmd vs Bash vs PowerShell vs whatever else, but the actual console that you interact with.

Any recommendations?

You like to tout Linux's flexibility, yet never seem to show any inclination to do the same thing on another OS and just write it off as "inflexible."

If it's awkward, difficult, or has a poor usability, then yes I'd call that inflexible.

You're not stuck with what comes out of the box, change it up, you're allowed to do that. Which you should, as I agree, the out-of-the box one is pretty weak, at best. Built for speed.. the usability takes a nosedive though.

I have yet to find a suitable replacement for an X terminal on Windows. And trust me I've looked. The best I found was a tabbed version of the default Windows console. Hardly promising.

For me anyway, the X server is for running remote GUI applications off of a *Nix box without dealing with the hassles/performance of a VNC-like session. A few different X servers you can pick from as well. Obviously unnecessary for local stuff.

Why run a remote GUI at all? ssh is where it's at ;)

[vhane]

There is no right answer for the Editor + command line vs. IDE arguments. For one, the use of an IDE doesn't preclude the use of command line tools. And once you've customised an editor sufficiently, it basically becomes an Integrated Development Environment.

 

No single tool is going to be the best at all the languages/platforms that I develop for. At the end of the day, I'll use the tools that give me the least friction in getting the job done. Usually it ends up being the tools that are best supported by the platform's vendor or community.

[Max Norris]

Any recommendations?

Used to use ConEmu-Maximus5 myself. Tabbed, ANSI/XTerm terminal emulation, macros, real copy/paste (WTF Microsoft..), status bar, all that good stuff. There's plenty of others though. A few years back I went the "real" terminal route, installed an SSH server and haven't looked back. Got lots of those to pick from, both servers and clients, take your pick, get all the features you'd expect out of a setup like that. It's not hard, click click done. So working locally on my own system or managing one of my BSD systems from remote, same terminal to do both.

 

If it's awkward, difficult, or has a poor usability, then yes I'd call that inflexible.

Which is why you'd replace whatever component you don't like with something else, just like you would with Linux. It's only inflexible if you make it so.

 

Why run a remote GUI at all? ssh is where it's at ;)

Some of us have to develop GUI applications for a living ;) So for me it's SSH + X forwarding to a local server. (And that's just another reason why I wouldn't want to use a plain text editor.. terrible for designing applications.)

[Boz]

Using terminal tools and typing a ton commands to do something simple is like being a dinosaur in terms of coding. You must be loving Pascal and Fortran in addition to Python as language of your choice.

With IDEs like IntelliJ using terminal and doing things from CLI seems like a total waste of time and productivity.

I personally feel that people who say bad things about IDEs are more inert to learning new things than having genuine complaints against something you really can't achieve with today's modern iDEs.

I absolutely adore IntelliJ IDEA. In my opinion absolute best IDE out there hands down. Being cross platform gives it an edge over Visual Studio that comes close second.

IDEA has database editor / SQL command line and schema designer, has integrated Terminal basically if you really really need it, has such easy integration of different frameworks with their own compilers and all this works with a keyboard shortcut or right clicking something and selecting option. Not to mention plugins for pretty much anything.

People who use plain text editors and CLI for their coding needs live in the stone ages.

[simplezz]

Used to use ConEmu-Maximus5 myself. Tabbed, ANSI/XTerm terminal emulation, macros, real copy/paste (WTF Microsoft..), status bar, all that good stuff.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Some of us have to develop GUI applications for a living ;) So for me it's SSH + X forwarding to a local server. (And that's just another reason why I wouldn't want to use a plain text editor.. terrible for designing applications.)

Glade's pretty good for that if you're into WYSIWYG and GTK. I think QT has an equivalent too.

[simplezz]

Using terminal tools and typing a ton commands to do something simple is like being a dinosaur in terms of coding.

All coding involves typing in commands. Language commands to be specific ;)

You must be loving Pascal and Fortran in addition to Python as language of your choice.

Who doesn't love Python? As far as Pascal goes, I did some of it at uni. Not a particular fan of it. Never used Fortran, so I couldn't comment.

With IDEs like IntelliJ using terminal and doing things from CLI seems like a total waste of time and productivity.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Omni_completion

You were suggesting that without code completion, an editor is useless, right? I don't use it personally, but it's certainly available on the cli.

I absolutely adore IntelliJ IDEA. In my opinion absolute best IDE out there hands down. Being cross platform gives it an edge over Visual Studio that comes close second.

Being cross platform is definitely a plus for me. That being said, I still wouldn't use it :) But everybody has their own preferences.

People who use plain text editors and CLI for their coding needs live in the stone ages.

Give the dark side a try, you might like it :p

[Andre S. Veteran]

The first part discusses Graphical programming tools such as Visual Studio. The first quotation was:

I will fight you if you try to take away my text editor," said Don Box, a Microsoft distinguished engineer.

Notice he says text editor, not IDE.

Visual Studio is an IDE that includes a text editor, graphical programming tools and many other tools. The article discusses text editors vs graphical programming tools, not IDEs vs text editors (which wouldn't make any sense). Probably that the text editor Don Box was referring to was the Visual Studio text editor.

 

It absolutely is abstracting away from the compiler. However, not to the degree with which IDE's tend to do it.

 

My preferred build system, GNU Autotools, is still very close to the metal so to speak. The M4 macros are only light wrappers around the compiler and make. One still needs to understand the macros, parameters, perl, makefiles, and what they all do.

 

For instance, if I want to compile my program to target a specific architecture I have to know how the compiler works:

../configure CFLAGS='-m32 -march=atom -O2 -s -DRELEASE -Wall -ansi -pedantic' --prefix=/usr --target=i686-pc-linux-gnu

 

So the only difference is that you have to type in the command by yourself (or copy-paste it from somewhere else), instead of selecting the switches from an annotated user interface explaining what they do. I could easily argue that the latter makes the various switches more discoverable and easier to understand promoting better understanding of the compiler's options, so I don't see how the method of entry you use is somehow superior.

 

Okay, how would you put quotations around every line in a file in your IDE text editor (we're talking about OOTB)? In Vim, I'd type the command

:%s/\(^\|$\)/\"/g

That's it.

Wow, it supports regular expressions! Just like every other IDE then  :)

 

Or perhaps global substitution:

:%s/foo/bar/g

 

Can it do semantic renaming (i.e. real refactoring) or just blind cut-paste?

 

go to line 1028:

G 1028

Visual Studio: CTRL-G 1028 (not that I ever use this, CTRL-T + [name of the type or member] is far more useful, I don't learn line numbers by heart)

 

Search for the next instance of the word the cursor is currently on:

*

 

CTRL-SHIFT-Up/Down (previous/next occurence). Semantic, not textual.

 

get a webpage:

:r ! w3m http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi -dump

That's cute. There's actually a web browser in Visual Studio.

 

jump back ten words:

10b

Delete the next eighteen lines:

d18j

Do you actually find that useful? I mean, if by doing that you intend to navigate somewhere precise or delete some particular lines, you have to count exactly how many tokens or lines you'll need to input. That sounds like a lot of mental work.

 

Common commands based on semantic understanding of the code (Go To Definition, Navigate To, Incremental Search) seem far more useful and easy to use. If I'm working with a 2 million LOC solution with 50 projects and I want to jump to some method which I think had the words "Start" and "Incremental" in them, for instance (something I'm actually likely to remember rather than line numbers or token counts that change daily through hundreds of changesets), I can type CTRL-T "StartIncremental" and immediately get a drop down list of all type names and member names in the solution in order of relevance that contain these words. 

 

If I know the name of a particular method called GetAllFilesInDirectory I can just type CTRL-T GAFID (using just the capital letters) and jump to it without ever having to look at any search results. If I have my cursor on a token and want to know where it's defined I can just hit F12 and it goes to the point of definition. If that is in some external library, I get a view of the metadata. With popular extensions like Resharper I even get a disassembly so I can see the source code even if written by a third-party. Can you do that in VIM?

 

If I want to change the name of some token with my cursor on it I can type CTRL-R-R [new name] Enter and automatically global semantic (i.e. not textual but actually replacing the instances of that token, if it's a local variable the scope is limited to the method, if it's a type the scope is all the referencing projects, etc.). Can you do that in VIM?

 

Does VIM OOTB give you any code completion? Does it underline errors as you type so you don't have to compile to catch common typos? 

 

Does your editor allow you to see for every line of code what is the latest changeset that modified this line and a link to jump to it directly and see who did that and why that line was changed?

 

You can count the words in a text file easily, but can you get a count of actual lines of code (excluding lines with just braces or whitespace)? Cyclomatic complexity? Track how many types each type references? This is all stuff that I do, conceptually, from my "text editor", because it's actually a "code editor" that understands my code and gives me really useful information and tools that process my code as code and not just text.

 

You seem quite impressed with the ability to use regular expressions or basic  textual navigation commands making me wonder if you've actually ever used a quality IDE with proper refactoring tools on a very large codebase and witnessed the power and productivity that this gives you. I mean, Visual Studio's text editor supports all the stuff you mention in VIM (except perhaps invoke command-line utilities), but I rarely ever use that because there are so much more useful and powerful options available.

 

Except we don't have to switch between applications. I can run everything from inside Vim if I like

So you're using Vim as an IDE then? ;)

[tim_s]

Hi,

This is a very good question.

People need to know the difference between a IDE (integrated development environment) and an Editor.

My choice for IDE is Eclipse.

:)

[Richard Grant]

I strictly write in notepad++ or terminal.

I absolutely hate IDE's.

 

Im certified in:

Adobe Dreamweaver cs5

Visual studio 2012

[vhane]

People get certified for IDE use now? What't the point of that?

[astropheed Veteran]

For Python I use PyCharm or for quick jobs PyScripter or for really quick jobs IDLE/Notepad++.

For PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript I use PHPStorm or for quick jobs Notepad++.

For C# I use Visual Studio.

For C I use Notepad++ or whichever Compilers Text Editor I downloaded at the time.

For Java I use Eclipse or Android Studio (I dislike both).

 

For everything else like the occasional LUA or C++ I use Notepad++

 

 

I used to use Notepad++ for everything, then I decided I was no longer a masochist nor do I feel the need to show off (except for showing off that I don't need to show off).

[Zidane]

For Python I use PyCharm or for quick jobs PyScripter or for really quick jobs IDLE/Notepad++.

For PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript I use PHPStorm or for quick jobs Notepad++.

For C# I use Visual Studio.

For C I use Notepad++ or whichever Compilers Text Editor I downloaded at the time.

For Java I use Eclipse or Android Studio (I dislike both).

 

For everything else like the occasional LUA or C++ I use Notepad++

 

 

I used to use Notepad++ for everything, then I decided I was no longer a masochist nor do I feel the need to show off (except for showing off that I don't need to show off).

Give IDEA a try for Java at least, absolutely amazing.

[vhane]

Give IDEA a try for Java at least, absolutely amazing.

 

He said he dislikes Android Studio, which is built on top of IntelliJ IDEA.

[PGHammer]

Visual Studio is an IDE that includes a text editor, graphical programming tools and many other tools. The article discusses text editors vs graphical programming tools, not IDEs vs text editors (which wouldn't make any sense). Probably that the text editor Don Box was referring to was the Visual Studio text editor.

 

So the only difference is that you have to type in the command by yourself (or copy-paste it from somewhere else), instead of selecting the switches from an annotated user interface explaining what they do. I could easily argue that the latter makes the various switches more discoverable and easier to understand promoting better understanding of the compiler's options, so I don't see how the method of entry you use is somehow superior.

 

Wow, it supports regular expressions! Just like every other IDE then  :)

 

Can it do semantic renaming (i.e. real refactoring) or just blind cut-paste?

 

Visual Studio: CTRL-G 1028 (not that I ever use this, CTRL-T + [name of the type or member] is far more useful, I don't learn line numbers by heart)

 

CTRL-SHIFT-Up/Down (previous/next occurence). Semantic, not textual.

 

That's cute. There's actually a web browser in Visual Studio.

 

Do you actually find that useful? I mean, if by doing that you intend to navigate somewhere precise or delete some particular lines, you have to count exactly how many tokens or lines you'll need to input. That sounds like a lot of mental work.

 

Common commands based on semantic understanding of the code (Go To Definition, Navigate To, Incremental Search) seem far more useful and easy to use. If I'm working with a 2 million LOC solution with 50 projects and I want to jump to some method which I think had the words "Start" and "Incremental" in them, for instance (something I'm actually likely to remember rather than line numbers or token counts that change daily through hundreds of changesets), I can type CTRL-T "StartIncremental" and immediately get a drop down list of all type names and member names in the solution in order of relevance that contain these words. 

 

If I know the name of a particular method called GetAllFilesInDirectory I can just type CTRL-T GAFID (using just the capital letters) and jump to it without ever having to look at any search results. If I have my cursor on a token and want to know where it's defined I can just hit F12 and it goes to the point of definition. If that is in some external library, I get a view of the metadata. With popular extensions like Resharper I even get a disassembly so I can see the source code even if written by a third-party. Can you do that in VIM?

 

If I want to change the name of some token with my cursor on it I can type CTRL-R-R [new name] Enter and automatically global semantic (i.e. not textual but actually replacing the instances of that token, if it's a local variable the scope is limited to the method, if it's a type the scope is all the referencing projects, etc.). Can you do that in VIM?

 

Does VIM OOTB give you any code completion? Does it underline errors as you type so you don't have to compile to catch common typos? 

 

Does your editor allow you to see for every line of code what is the latest changeset that modified this line and a link to jump to it directly and see who did that and why that line was changed?

 

You can count the words in a text file easily, but can you get a count of actual lines of code (excluding lines with just braces or whitespace)? Cyclomatic complexity? Track how many types each type references? This is all stuff that I do, conceptually, from my "text editor", because it's actually a "code editor" that understands my code and gives me really useful information and tools that process my code as code and not just text.

 

You seem quite impressed with the ability to use regular expressions or basic  textual navigation commands making me wonder if you've actually ever used a quality IDE with proper refactoring tools on a very large codebase and witnessed the power and productivity that this gives you. I mean, Visual Studio's text editor supports all the stuff you mention in VIM (except perhaps invoke command-line utilities), but I rarely ever use that because there are so much more useful and powerful options available.

 

So you're using Vim as an IDE then? ;)

That's the thing about VS - it has (literally) more options at it's displsal than pretty much ANY developer would normally use - and it's extensible as heck.  (That was, in fact, the very reason why the Express and non-Express versions of the VS IDE merged, for all practical purposes, over the CTP cycle of VS14 - the same developers that used VS Express wanted the same extensibility that the "paid" develoeprs had )

[PGHammer]

Visual Studio is an IDE that includes a text editor, graphical programming tools and many other tools. The article discusses text editors vs graphical programming tools, not IDEs vs text editors (which wouldn't make any sense). Probably that the text editor Don Box was referring to was the Visual Studio text editor.

 

So the only difference is that you have to type in the command by yourself (or copy-paste it from somewhere else), instead of selecting the switches from an annotated user interface explaining what they do. I could easily argue that the latter makes the various switches more discoverable and easier to understand promoting better understanding of the compiler's options, so I don't see how the method of entry you use is somehow superior.

 

Wow, it supports regular expressions! Just like every other IDE then  :)

 

Can it do semantic renaming (i.e. real refactoring) or just blind cut-paste?

 

Visual Studio: CTRL-G 1028 (not that I ever use this, CTRL-T + [name of the type or member] is far more useful, I don't learn line numbers by heart)

 

CTRL-SHIFT-Up/Down (previous/next occurence). Semantic, not textual.

 

That's cute. There's actually a web browser in Visual Studio.

 

Do you actually find that useful? I mean, if by doing that you intend to navigate somewhere precise or delete some particular lines, you have to count exactly how many tokens or lines you'll need to input. That sounds like a lot of mental work.

 

Common commands based on semantic understanding of the code (Go To Definition, Navigate To, Incremental Search) seem far more useful and easy to use. If I'm working with a 2 million LOC solution with 50 projects and I want to jump to some method which I think had the words "Start" and "Incremental" in them, for instance (something I'm actually likely to remember rather than line numbers or token counts that change daily through hundreds of changesets), I can type CTRL-T "StartIncremental" and immediately get a drop down list of all type names and member names in the solution in order of relevance that contain these words. 

 

If I know the name of a particular method called GetAllFilesInDirectory I can just type CTRL-T GAFID (using just the capital letters) and jump to it without ever having to look at any search results. If I have my cursor on a token and want to know where it's defined I can just hit F12 and it goes to the point of definition. If that is in some external library, I get a view of the metadata. With popular extensions like Resharper I even get a disassembly so I can see the source code even if written by a third-party. Can you do that in VIM?

 

If I want to change the name of some token with my cursor on it I can type CTRL-R-R [new name] Enter and automatically global semantic (i.e. not textual but actually replacing the instances of that token, if it's a local variable the scope is limited to the method, if it's a type the scope is all the referencing projects, etc.). Can you do that in VIM?

 

Does VIM OOTB give you any code completion? Does it underline errors as you type so you don't have to compile to catch common typos? 

 

Does your editor allow you to see for every line of code what is the latest changeset that modified this line and a link to jump to it directly and see who did that and why that line was changed?

 

You can count the words in a text file easily, but can you get a count of actual lines of code (excluding lines with just braces or whitespace)? Cyclomatic complexity? Track how many types each type references? This is all stuff that I do, conceptually, from my "text editor", because it's actually a "code editor" that understands my code and gives me really useful information and tools that process my code as code and not just text.

 

You seem quite impressed with the ability to use regular expressions or basic  textual navigation commands making me wonder if you've actually ever used a quality IDE with proper refactoring tools on a very large codebase and witnessed the power and productivity that this gives you. I mean, Visual Studio's text editor supports all the stuff you mention in VIM (except perhaps invoke command-line utilities), but I rarely ever use that because there are so much more useful and powerful options available.

 

So you're using Vim as an IDE then? ;)

And there is even VsVIM (for those that use Visual Studio that actually prefer vim) - it is available for 2012 and later (including both the new Community Edition and the CTP for VS14 - which CAN coexist by-the-by).

 

So far, Community Edition may well be a 2013 - if not 2014 - Professional killer, for the rather surprising reason that I have seen exactly diddly-squit in the 2014 CTP that 2013 Community lacks (for non-enterprise development)  And, rather amusingly, that is quite aside from the one HUNDRED percent discount.

[PGHammer]

And there is even VsVIM (for those that use Visual Studio that actually prefer vim) - it is available for 2012 and later (including both the new Community Edition and the CTP for VS14 - which CAN coexist by-the-by).

 

So far, Community Edition may well be a 2013 - if not 2014 - Professional killer, for the rather surprising reason that I have seen exactly diddly-squit in the 2014 CTP that 2013 Community lacks (for non-enterprise development)  And, rather amusingly, that is quite aside from the one HUNDRED percent discount.

The only real quibble (and even that isn't Visual Studio's fault) is the Hyper-V requirement for the emulators; however, said quibble is exactly that.  There are PLENTY of inexpensive CPUs (and APUs, if you prefer AMD) that support Hyper-V - you can bundle a Haswell-based Intel PentiumG-3258 and Z97 ATX motherboard for $99USD at any Micro Center location in the US.  (That is *less* than an OEM/System Builder copy of Windows 7 Professional or later, by the by.)

[adrynalyne]

People get certified for IDE use now? What't the point of that?

It lets the hiring manager know how to at least open it and click run, or F5.

 

:p

[sorlag]

Honestly I tried all suggested here.. Eclipse, Netbeans, Dreamweaver, Aptana and I still use Sublime for quick edits but they are all meh compared to IntelliJ.

 

Try PhpStorm or IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate (maybe an overkill) and you will never use anything else. 

 

PHP PhpStorm is amazing for exclusively web development. It has plugins for anything you might need SASS, LESS, Mongo, Node etc etc.. But the best part is it also has superior:

 

1. Syncing / Deployment

2. Integrated Wordpress support (Automattic guys use it for development)

3. Database viewer/designer and SQL editor

4. Direct terminal access (so you can use it directly in the IDE)

5. Super fast

 

The downside is that it's not free.. but it's absolutely the best (They do have the community edition though which is free)

 

If you want to do Java and other stuff IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate is the powerhouse. It has EVERYTHING. You will never leave the IDE. 

 

 

As far as IDE, I found after using it for a long time (still fire it from time to time) is the best rounded web centric development IDE. Eclipse/Aptana (based on Eclipse) and Netbeans though adding some additional things for coding particularly are pretty cumbersome. 

 

Sublime is really an editor with some plugins to emulate the IDE environment but it's a pain in the *** . It's a good editor, don't get me wrong, but setting things up and making it an environment to work with as effectively is the pain that I mentioned.

PhpStorm is nice, but i can't use it to load/save projects that are on my NAS, because it does not handle network shares with its strange non windows file dialogs...

[ZakO]

PhpStorm is nice, but i can't use it to load/save projects that are on my NAS, because it does not handle network shares with its strange non windows file dialogs...

 

Just mount your network share as a virtual drive (or use mklink to map to a virtual folder)? I have no problem accessing PHPStorm/Rubymine projects on my network drives:

net use X: \\HDDName\ShareName

[PGHammer]

 

 

Just mount your network share as a virtual drive (or use mklink to map to a virtual folder)? I have no problem accessing PHPStorm/Rubymine projects on my network drives:

net use X: \\HDDName\ShareName

 

Or add the PHP extensions for Visual Studio (2012 and later).

Alternatively, you can use Windows Server 2012 (including R2) as your development platform - no, I'm not kidding.

Like Windows 8 (which is based on the same code) it supports Hyper-V - unlike Windows 8, it does not require Extended Processor Tables support.

Further, unlike Windows Server 2008 or earlier, it does NOT require pruning via third-party software to be used as a solid development platform.

I keep Server 2012R2 around primarily BECAUSE it actually makes more sense as a development platform than Windows 8.1 does - a rather strange thing to say about a server OS.

I'm installing the Apache Cordova extensions for Visual Studio right now (required for the Android Emulator and Android Development in VS Community/VS 14 Preview) in my 2012R2 partition, where it will co-exist alongside the other tools in the toolset.

Yes - that means that Yosemite has (for now) been kicked to the curb - however, that is due to lack of drives (for now).