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Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:37 pm
by mottwsc
Moved to General Discussion by moderator.
What is the best open source debugging / RAD tool for PHP? And why is it considered the best - ease of use, features, etc. I realize that these may represent two different categories, but I'm hoping one tool does both well...
Thanks!
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:53 pm
by alex.barylski
xdebug is open source although I have never used it...I find print_r() and debug_backtrace() more than sufficient.
Eclipse is open source and is popular...I use UltraEdit with about a dozen little tool scripts I have developed over the years to speed up refactoring, debugging, etc.
UltraEdit isn't free but it's cheap at 50USD or so...it's pocket change for the solid editor you get.
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:49 am
by mottwsc
I looked into several of these, including UltraEdit. There's also UEStudio, an IDE that builds on UltraEdit. It appears, though, that you can only do C/C++ interactive debugging with it - not PHP. Does anyone know if this is correct?
I also am looking into NuSphere PHPEd, an IDE with an interactive PHP debugger. Does anyone have any experience/thoughts on this product?
Thanks.
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:13 pm
by alex.barylski
Interactive debugging would be nice and certainly speed up development somewhat...but honestly...I dunno I've got by for years with manually entering in exit statement when I want to test tup to a certain point.
Zend studio is probably your best bet in this regard...I should give it a try.
EDIT | Seem Zend IDE is based on Eclipse...
Cheers,
Alex
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:44 pm
by mottwsc
OK - thanks for the insight.
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:46 pm
by josh
PCSpectra wrote:Interactive debugging would be nice and certainly speed up development somewhat...but honestly...I dunno I've got by for years with manually entering in exit statement when I want to test tup to a certain point.
That's what xdebug is usually used for ( when combined with zend studio or nusphere phped ). IMO just because the old way works doesn't mean it makes sense. My ancestors got by without electricity, that doesn't make it practical

The problem I find with manual debugging is you won't always guess which data to print, interactive debugging allows you to immerse yourself in the code, you can see everything that's going on, move forwards and backwards, in and out of the stack, change variables, execute arbitrary code at arbitrary points, set breakpoints, etc...
Of course print_r and exit() "works", but when I tried GUI debugging I experienced a "flow" that boosted my productivity in ways I did not predict. It's worth trying out, give it some time if you do...
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:08 pm
by Stryks
Nusphere PHPEd is a decent product for a reasonable price. The built in debugger is really quite good and it has all the assorted features that can help you along.
I was doing some contract work and they provided it on the system I was using. I was a plain text editor coder up until that point apart from a few months of Zend Studio in another workplace, but I really liked it. I've been using it myself for over a year now and find that it is the most productive tool for me. Zend studio would have been my first choice, but I'm just not a fan of eclipse. Eclipse just feels awkward and clunky to me. I open it up and it just feels restrictive and unresponsive. Having said that, Zend Studio has some truly excellent features that cant be found elsewhere. But then having said that, I cant say that I *really* miss them.
Anyhow, PHPEd is well worth a look. A lot of the extra functionality is pretty thin, but the editor itself is pretty solid.
Just in case you become a NuSphere convert like I was, avoid their Nucoder product unless you have a great host that you wont want to relocate from AND that will let you run the required PHP extension.
Cheers
Re: Best Open Source Debugging / RAD tool for PHP
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:13 pm
by mottwsc
Thanks to all...