I think my previous posts have already indicated that my development environment, specifically my IDE, is important to me, and that I make a habit of exploring my options on a regular basis. For the last 7 months I've been using NuSphere's PhpED, which I've really enjoyed. The only things that I've been just a little dissatisfied with is that it only runs on windows and that its window arranging capabilities are not as robust as Eclipse. But, having seen a few tweets about NetBeans, I decided to visit this old acquaintance once again.

I had used NetBeans ages ago when I was learning a little bit of Java. It was good enough... for Java. Then, some time ago I had tried NetBeans 6 (I don't recall which minor version), because I learned they were working on building a PHP IDE out of NetBeans, which intrigued me. At the time, I simply felt NetBeans didn't stack up to Eclipse, and I hadn't yet discovered PhpED. However, with some recent twitter traffic about NetBeans, I figured I'd give the latest incarnation a spin to kick the wheels a little.

I tend to consider myself a technical user, and for years, I operated various Linux distributions and setups to facilitate our home network. Mostly this meant a place to dump our backups in an intelligent manner, but I would also setup things like easy file sharing between our computers and even get fancy sometimes and so music servers or video streaming (though we never actually used any of that). However, after years of putting a lot of effort into maintaining that type of setup (keeping things organized, re-configuring everything after a workstation re-install, reconfiguring the server after a Linux re-install, etc), I decided I wanted something simple, that "just works." To be fair, part of my problem with using Linux was that the Linux box doubled as my development and testbed server, so I was always tinkering with it. Instead, I needed a box that would serve our family home network and not be my tinker box.

Enter Windows Home Server.

As I explained in my previous post, I've been on the hunt for a new PHP IDE. During past searches for this type of tool, I've always taken a glance at NuSphere's PhpED and usually went away screaming rather quickly because of how clunky, ugly, and just plain annoying the interface was (keep reading, though, they fixed this!). My last look at PhpED was verison 5.2 quite some time ago -- it was a good improvement over previous PhpED versions, but it couldn't compete with the Eclipse-based options (at least in the terms that mattered to me).

Which brings me to an important note: what I look for in an IDE is probably not exactly what another coder will look for in an IDE. From what I've experienced, choice of tools for most coders is 50% features/capabilities and 90% preference (oh hai, math!). For me, here is a list of features that are important:

Every few months as I sit at my desk and code away, I can't help but wonder to myself, "Is there anything better out there?" I'm not being metaphysical or introspective -- I'm talking about my integrated development environment (IDE). Most coders I've met are the same way: we find a tool we like, use it for a while, but usually end up wanting something more or different. Perhaps discontent is a core part of human nature, but every few months I go looking for better tools.

This past weekend, for a number of reasons I won't get into now, I performed a complete "re-install" of my primary workstation. Previously, I was using XP Pro SP2, which had been installed and running smoothly on the machine for nearly two solid years. This also meant that my machine had two years worth of my customized configurations, applications, tools, etc., so a re-install also meant bringing a fresh Windows (Vista this time) installation up to speed and in sync with my preferences.

During the process of re-installing all the various programs and utilities that I make regular use of, it occurred to me that I was installing the things that I just couldn't do without -- the tools I keep in my toolbelt at all times. I don't know if I've got everything installed yet, but I know I've installed all the primary tools that I use on a regular basis... and they are listed here:

I'm one of "those" people that paid for Eclipse, an open source integrated development environment (IDE). I originally bought it because I love and use Eclipse a lot for my work and I wanted commercially available support for the product on which I depend so heavily.

Zend recently released version 6.1 of Studio for Eclipse, with very little (if any) fanfare or announcements (I didn't know about it until I looked at the download site), compared to the release of 6.0.1 which was heralded in their newsletter, all over their website, and everywhere Zend's press team has any influence. I find this ironic, because 6.1 contains huge improvements and more fixes than the upgrade to 6.0.1 did.

Last month Chapter Three announced they were working on a Firefox plugin and Drupal module that would allow Firebug to talk with Drupal. As a Web Developer who uses Firebug heavily every day and who specializes in Drupal, this announcement from Chapter Three got me a little excited -- so I installed the plugin, enabled the module, and gave it a shot.

Sometime near the beginning of this week I heard something in passing about Google releasing a web browser. At first, I thought that was a cute idea. After a couple seconds of letting it soak in, however, I began to wonder what Google would try to bring to the table that they felt was not already present. I also wondered if Google's banning, then re-instatement of the Mozilla Public License had anything to do with their new browser -- but they're not evil, so that can't be it!

I wasn't really worried about trying it out at all, but a few things conspired to change my mind. First, seeing the CEO of Google being interviewed about Chrome during prime-time. Second, all the blog coverage of Chrome; and, third, glancing over the shoulder of someone trying it out and thinking to myself, "Huh -- looks interesting."

So I downloaded Chrome and set about evaluating it: