Develop PHP Applications Faster

Hello fellow blackhatters,

I've been writing programs my entire life, starting from C/C++ and ending with PHP.

I code fast, but I want it faster. And my question to you is what works for you best when it comes to PHP+AJAX?

I use EditPlus 2 for almost everything, and about 3 years ago I was trying to switch to a more convenient environment without much of success. Did something change from back then?

Cheers,

Old school programmer here I work in my ftp editor for php, javascript, Ajax and everything else. I have worked with IDE's and other tools but I have yet to find something that did not have a steep learning curve that provided a trade-off worthwhile.

If you find something good let me know I am interested too.

Oh goodness coding PHP with AJAX is the slowest, most mundane task I've ever done in my life. Please, for the love of God, if you find anything to make it go faster, please save us all.

what do you mean you want it faster?

Is your IDE too slow?
Should you be using a framework to speed up your app development?
Do you need to learn to type faster?
Do you need some PHP exercises to get more proficient with the language?

Your OP post is too slow.

I work with Wordpress exclusively. Past 6 months no problem to the day. If I need custom system I just wrap it in a plugin or directly within the theme's functions.php

My IDE is Dreamweaver with most of the websites have FTP accounts and there's an option to upload on save but for project deployment I use CuteFTP and Navicat.

ijof9 said:

I work with Wordpress exclusively. Past 6 months no problem to the day. If I need custom system I just wrap it in a plugin or directly within the theme's functions.php

My IDE is Dreamweaver with most of the websites have FTP accounts and there's an option to upload on save but for project deployment I use CuteFTP and Navicat.

Click to expand...

You are right boss. WP plugin is life saver!

Edit plus is the best editor these days..Frameworks are better only when the project is a little bigger.For small application they are just a time waste..

judson said:

what do you mean you want it faster?

Is your IDE too slow?
Should you be using a framework to speed up your app development?
Do you need to learn to type faster?
Do you need some PHP exercises to get more proficient with the language?

Your OP post is too slow.

Click to expand...

Well ideally I want 100 programmers writing code 24/7 without asking for a penny. But when it comes to _good_ applications I don't trust these hard working bastards, and will have to settle for a better IDE.

ijof9 said:

I work with Wordpress exclusively. Past 6 months no problem to the day. If I need custom system I just wrap it in a plugin or directly within the theme's functions.php

My IDE is Dreamweaver with most of the websites have FTP accounts and there's an option to upload on save but for project deployment I use CuteFTP and Navicat.

Click to expand...

How is Dreamweaver? I tried it once and didnt like it much, but I suppose since then the things has changed.

p.s. Navicat rules

Use codecharge

Netbeans IDE
Firefox with addons:
- Web developer toolbar
- Firebug
- ColorZilla

Use a framework like Yii (recommended) or CodeIgniter or Kohana or whatever so you don't have to code everything yourself but reuse what others did.

Use the code templates functionality in Netbeans so for example you write "fore" press TAB and get the code for a foreach. Or write "myiter" (mysql iterator) hit TAB and get the whole mysql_query... while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc) ...

Good coders code 10 times as fast than average coders. Trust me on that.

I use notepad, my brain, and my fingers, AND I code very fast

madoctopus said:

Netbeans IDE
Firefox with addons:
- Web developer toolbar
- Firebug
- ColorZilla

Use a framework like Yii (recommended) or CodeIgniter or Kohana or whatever so you don't have to code everything yourself but reuse what others did.

Use the code templates functionality in Netbeans so for example you write "fore" press TAB and get the code for a foreach. Or write "myiter" (mysql iterator) hit TAB and get the whole mysql_query... while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc) ...

Good coders code 10 times as fast than average coders. Trust me on that.

Click to expand...

Should look into Netbeans, any idea how it compares to Aptana Studio 3?

wickedguy said:

I use notepad, my brain, and my fingers, AND I code very fast

Click to expand...

Now imagine how fast you would code with a good IDE.

I tried the below 6 months back and was not impressed but I did not know about the keyboard shortcuts.

Will probably try again with Yii

madoctopus said:

Netbeans IDE
Firefox with addons:
- Web developer toolbar
- Firebug
- ColorZilla

Use a framework like Yii (recommended) or CodeIgniter or Kohana or whatever so you don't have to code everything yourself but reuse what others did.

Use the code templates functionality in Netbeans so for example you write "fore" press TAB and get the code for a foreach. Or write "myiter" (mysql iterator) hit TAB and get the whole mysql_query... while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc) ...

Good coders code 10 times as fast than average coders. Trust me on that.

Click to expand...

lancis said:

Should look into Netbeans, any idea how it compares to Aptana Studio 3?

Click to expand...

They are pretty similar I guess. Last time I used Aptana was a while back (2-3 years). These days NB is all I need. I'm a power user I don't need visual crap. I need is to hand code fast. I even use Notepad++ for quick script, but for projects i stick to NB because it is more organized.

wickedguy said:

I use notepad, my brain, and my fingers, AND I code very fast

Click to expand...

OMG really? First time when I started coding there were no good IDEs. I used WordPad which is worse than Notepad when you select strings and stuff like that it always selects one extra quote lol. Was a fking pain in the ass. At least use Notepad++ if not a proper IDE. Coding large apps in notepad is like building the Hoover dam with just a shovel.

you have dreamweaver and microsoft expression web 4....
personally I'm an old school programmer. I only use notepad++ and maybe ready to use functions library I developed earlier...

I use Zend For Eclipse and I have started with a framework (symfony) for a few weeks now and it has a learning curve because you need to know where everything fits, but once you get the hang of it it really develops faster then coding everything from scratch.
The hardest to learn about framework is the MVC style of building applications.
In a classic app you mostly have a .php file for every page, and you have some sort of global.php that holds the header and footer of your site. with MVC (Model, View, Controller) you have 1 index.php that is talking to the outside (the controller) that uses a 'router' that determines what you are trying to view (l ooks at the requested url), a bit like mod_rewrite but easier and better, then you have the View that uses a template to build the webpages you want to 'view'. The Model is a representation from the DB in php and is build in doctrine or propel, which make using the DB very easy. You don't really need to know SQL anymore (but it always is nice if you do )

So I think the best way to speed it up is use a IDE that has code completion and also recognizes the functions etc from the other php files. And learn to use an MVC framework like symfony, zend framework, cakephp, ....

Also, always try to be a 'lazy programmer' and only code everything only once. My apps are always modular and the code as generic as can be, so I can easily pick modules from one app and use them in a new app without reinventing the wheel over and over.

I use phpDesigner all the way. I like the intellisense system and it has support for a lot of things including debugging of running code.