In my mind, the way I visualize computing and usability is by using the two terms power & polish. Power is the raw ability to do something. Polish is the ease doing that something.

Linux is very powerful. If you know your way around the command prompt, you can accomplish just about anything. I hate administering Windows Servers because I lack the power that I have when administering a Linux Server. However, I wouldn’t say [the Linux Desktop] is very polished in comparison to OS X. Apple has placed a huge amount of time, effort, and work into polishing the interface and usability of their operating system. The reason I like the term “polish” is because polishing something doesn’t give you anything new, but just makes something already in existence better. It also requires a great deal of work.

Eclipse PDT is pretty powerful IDE for PHP. It’s code completion, one of my highest important priorities when using an IDE for me. Zend Studio is an additional layer of power on top of Eclipse PDT. It also adds some polish with easier installer and a few other things. I think that Aptana Studio addition to the Eclipse family is a little more Polish. It also focus’s its power on other aspects.

Serious PHP vs HTML/CSS/JavaScript

Eclipse PDT and Zend Studio focus on PHP first, then HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc. Don’t get me wrong, they do each okay. However, the focus is a lot more on PHP. Aptana Studio, in my opinion, has better CSS and HTML support. Example, when I manage CSS files in Zend Studio, its really buggy and slow. I think there are some bugs they have to work out. Aptana Studio, on the other hand, works really well.

The flip side is Code Completion. I’m a big fan of the Code Completion in Zend Studio. It works well and pops-up when I want it to. Aptana on the other hand didn’t have a lot of completion options. I found myself wanting for more from it.

Another note worthy aspect of Aptana Studio is their two versions: Aptana Studio and Aptana Studio Pro. I actually like how they have split the features. I honestly feel like if you need the features of the Pro version, you can easily justify the cost. It is also less expensive than Zend Studio at just $99. I also really like the option for premier support tickets where bug fixes & feature requests of Pro users get a higher priority. One thing I’ve found really disappointing with Zend Studio is how hard it is to get support. Almost everytime I find a forum post on Zend’s forums asking for help on a problem, there usually are 3-4 posts saying “I’m having the same problem, I would really like the answer too” without any answer.

Conclusion

Here is my suggestion. If you work heavily in PHP coding behind the scenes, Eclipse PDT and Zend Studio might be a better fit. However, if you’re a developer who is working in both PHP and do a lot with HTML/CSS, you might find Aptana a better fit. I haven’t had a time to really compare the two, but that is my initial finding with the subject of Aptana Studio PHP vs Eclipse PDT vs Zend Studio. Also, if Zend Studio’s price is too steep ($399), Aptana Studio would probably be a LOT easier to swallow. Aptana Sutdio comes with a 30 day trial of pro features. Give them all a try, they all work on Windows, OS X, and Linux. Let me know what you think, and feel free to drop any questions and/or comments.

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I’ve been using Zend Studio (ZS) for the last two years. It is developed by Zend, the company behind PHP. The very first time I used it and it was able to auto-complete my custom PHP classes I was sold. With version 6 of Zend Studio, they integrated Zend Studio with Eclipse, a popular IDE framework. I’ve been mostly happy with the new version, where as in some areas I felt that things were took a step back.

PHP Development Tools, also know as PDT, is an extension to Eclipse. It is open source and free to use for anyone. Zend Studio 6 is basically an additional layer on top of PDT offering additional features. The differences between Zend Studio 6 and Eclipse PDT vary from between areas of development. The question is what’s the difference? Which IDE is better for who?

After using both PDT and Zend Studio, I thought I would shed some light on the subject. There is a list of the differences on Zend’s website that is well detailed. The list in my opinion over exaggerates the differences due to listing many “minor” features. Here are the biggest differences in my opinion:

Ease of Installation

Zend Studio is easier to install and setup than PDT. ZS has a simple installer and can install Zend Platform, Zend Encoder, etc along with it. PDT on the other hand requires a little more work to set it up. Its not that difficult, just a little more time consuming. Also, it won’t install any other Zend products for you if you need them.

Refactoring

This is can be a huge breakthrough for PHP IDEs. Strongly-Typed environments, such as Java and C#, are easier to refractor due to how their IDEs and Language work. PHP really hasn’t and any type of refactoring options in IDEs until Zend Studio. For those who don’t know what refactoring is, lets say you need to rename a class’s function. Before you would just do a really big find and replace. However, what if you had this in hundreds of places? What if there was another class with the same function name? Find and Replace would screw up all of those scenarios unless you did each replace manually checking the context. That could take hours and hours. It also is very bug prone if you make a mistake.

Refactoring allows you to change function names, variable names, class names, using the logic of the editor. That means it will detect when it is appropriate to rename or change something. Now with ZS it isn’t 100% unless you use PHPDoc tags and are very clear with includes, etc. However, for large professional projects it can save hours of time. This is a very advanced feature that some developers can’t live without. This is probably the biggest difference I think between PDT and ZS.

PHPUnit Testing

Zend Studio has PHPUnit support built in. For serious developers who use PHPUnit testing every day will find this feature very useful. ZS helps the creation of tests, running and managing test, etc. PDT doesn’t have any built-in support for PHPUnit tests. You can use the editor to write tests, and there are some tutorials on using PHPUnit with Eclipse, so with a little work you can make Eclipse help with PHPUnit tests.

Debugging

Both Zend Studio and PDT allow for debugging. Zend Studio makes it easier to setup and manage. PDT requires a little more work and research to get debugging to work. Zend Studio has a few features, like the Debug toolbar for FireFox & Internet Explorer, that make Debugging a little more convenient. ZS also supports some more advanced features like SSL, Tunneling Support, Web Server Profiling, etc. Basic summary is that ZS makes debugging more convenient, where as PDT requires a little more work.

PHP Editor

This is where most developers will use ZS or Eclipse. It is also where ZS and PDT are practically the same. The only difference is Zend Studio has handful of helpers, such a code generation for classes, getters and setters, interface implementations, etc. They both has the same code completion (a.k.a. intellisense) features which I personally find the most useful. This is where the meat of Zend Studio and PDT are at, and both do a great job.

Zend Platform & Zend Framework

This is where Zend Studio has a lot of support over PDT. ZS helps make using Zend Framework and Zend Platform easier for developers. If you check the comparison list, you can see this is where Zend Studio has all the features PDT doesn’t.

Conclusion

Zend Studio and PDT are both great products, both built on the Eclipse framework. PDT is a great extension of Eclipse, and Zend Studio is a great extension of PDT. How can you tell if you should use PDT for free, or pay the $400 for Zend Studio 6. The answer is this: PDT is great for regular developers. However, if you are a professional developer who can save time from Zend Studio, the saving time will be worth the $400 dollars. One great thing is if you start off with PDT, and decide you would like some of the features of Zend Studio, you won’t have to re-learn anything. Zend Studio has all the same features as PDT.

I highly recommend both products. You can try out Zend Studio 6 for 30 days for free. There are also people who might prefer other PHP IDEs and not like the interface of ZS/PDT. That is why I suggest trying the trial.

Hopefully this article will be helpful for those wondering.

Related posts:

1. Zend Studio – Basic Intellisense Tutorial
2. Web Development 10-Years Ago & Now
3. PHP5.x or PHP6 – Argument for Type-Hinting: Better IDEs

10 Years Ago

I started web development back in 1997. My tools back then were:

• Notepad – That right, the one and only. It was how most people did their websites back in the day. It hasn’t changed much over the years.
  
• Adobe Photoshop v4 – The must have program for image editing:
  
• Dreamweaver 1.0 – Thats right, I’ve been with dreamweaver since the beginning! (Sorry, I couldn’t find a screenshot)
• ws_ftp95 – This old school FTP program was the bomb in my eyes since day 1. Boy have things come a long.

Technology wise I was serving up static HTML pages. When I had mastered Dreamweaver’s template system, I was able to run a website with 20+ pages not too bad. It was definitely interesting. Every time I made a change, it would go through and update every single page, and then I would upload every page to the server.

Website wise I started off piddling with the Knights of Honor’s website (Web Archive: http://www.knightsofhonor.org/). It is no longer up, but it was for a guild for one of the very first MMO’s called The Realm. It was a lot of fun for a long while.

Knights of Honor Website:

I then started my own website called RPGLegacy.com (Web Archive: http://www.rpglegacy.com/) where I did reviews for video games. It was a lot of fun and I had about 20-30 visitors a day. I was really happy with the traffic. I did it under my writing alias of Kevon McCoy, because I was only 14 or 15 at the time.

RPGLegacy Website Archive:

Up until this point I had done everything with static HTML pages. It was a nightmare looking back now. So ineffective and tedious. However, it did add a level of accomplishment and self-reward. Running your own website was a lot of work.

In 2001 I started a website called Counter-Hack. It was a website dedicated to the education and protection against illegal video game cheats. At the time I was playing a game called Counter-Strike. It was plagued with people using programs to see through walls, auto-aim, run super fast, etc. This was running the fun for the rest of us. I started the website like my others, with static HTML, until my friend Anthony Ouwehand (a.k.a H3X) introduced me to a wonderful language called PHP. He spearheaded the new design of the website.

Within a few months, due to some luck and great SEO, we started to have 1,000-3,000 visitors a day. I was astounded! We continued to have success throughout the years. We were even mentioned in an article of Rolling Stone Magazine about hackers. We have had a great staff there and I’ve been lucky to work with such great people (Anthony, Nick, and the rest of the CH gang!) While Counter Hack is still running itself, it has slowed down a lot. However, my current projects are anything but slow.

Counter-Hack Website:

Web Development Today

Today I have more tools and utilities than I know what to do with. It is amazing how different developing for the web is now.

• Zend Studio 6.0 – This PHP IDE has been a time saver. While there are some other good IDEs for PHP, this is my personal favorite. With features such as debugging and intellisense, I’ve come a long ways from the days of just Notepad. I mainly use this for coding PHP. I use other tools for CSS and HTML Layouts.
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 – This program has come a very, very long way. While many parts of the layout have stayed the same, Dreamweaver is a good WYSIWYG editor. I use this mainly to create HTML templates before cutting them up into their PHP parts. It also has great CSS editing capabilities. I mostly use it in the split mode, so I can code by hand quickly and see the results below.
• Notepad2 – While I don’t use Notepad, I love Notepad2. It is a free program with code lines, syntax coloring, and a few other features. It makes for a great lightweight editor. If I need to do something quick, I find myself using Notepad2.
• Visual Studio 2008 – While some people dislike .NET, I will have to say ASP .NET has it’s situations where its quick and fast, especially for larger corporations who already have Windows Servers.

The technologies of today for developing for the web have also increased greatly:

• PHP 5.1 – I’m a avid PHP believer. Its a very scalable and affordable.
• MySQL 5 – I love this database. Its a great open source database that is getting better every version.
• JQuery – The best Javascript Library in my humble opinion.
• CSS – Cascade Style Sheets, the new way to design websites.
• XHTML – The new HTML.

With all the new technologies, web developers have never been empowered as much as now. Many websites are approaching near “rich-application” experience. With the new ideas of “Web 2.0″ breading new ways of sharing and presenting data, the imagination is the only limit (well, almost).

The current websites I’ve been working on have been pushing my personal limits of knowledge and creativity. I always enjoy the challenge and experience.

CEVO – Cyber Evolution – Online Video Game Competitions

http://www.cevo.com/

I’ve been working with CEVO since March of 2005. It is a service geared towards video gamers to provide a venue to play their game competitively for prizes, glory, and fame. We’ve successfully served over 17,000 teams and over 70,000 members these past three years. The technology behind CEVO is pretty complex and demanding due to the fact that 95% of all of our business runs through our website. It is the lifeblood of our organization. We use PHP and MySQL for out website, and have been including more jquery and AJAX techniques across the website.

I’ve learned a lot about managing a mid to large sized websites. We’ve had a lot of bottlenecks with inefficient MySQL queries and structures. Its different when programming with millions of rows, not hundreds. We’ve had to do a lot of optimizations over time and we’ve done 4 different version of the site in 3 years. I know, a lot.

WhySecurity.org – Security Resource for Regular People

http://www.whysecurity.org/

This is a small project I’ve whipped up real quick with the goal of being a site on PC security. We’ll see if it takes off.

DatingDNA – Social Network Dating Website

http:/www.datingdna.com/

I’ve very excited to be working on this project with some great people and a lot of potential. We’re working on some cutting edge stuff and positioning to be a very popular website. I cant say much, but it is a very fun project.

Hopefully you’ve found this all intriguing and enjoy this blast to the past.

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