Tools for development

[igorw]

Please post free tools that you use for development so others can use them too. Do keep posts in this topic limited to software recommendations. From time to time the links will be copied into the first post.

Jump To

• Text editors
• FTP Clients
• Diff Tools
• Webserver (and environment)
• Virtual Machines
• SVN (version control)
• Git (version control)
• Styling
• Desktop Environment
• Other Tools

Text editor / IDE

• Eclipse PDT: http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/
• PSPad: http://www.pspad.com/
• Notepad++: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
• Zend Community edition http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt
• Netbeans: http://www.netbeans.org/
• Komodo Edit: http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/

FTP client:

• Filezilla: http://filezilla-project.org/

Diff tools

• Winmerge: http://winmerge.org/
• Kdiff3: http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/

Webserver (and environment)

• XAMPP: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
• WAMP: http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php
• Zend Server Community Edition : http://www.zend.com/en/products/server/ ... E_Download

Virtual machine

• VirtualBox: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Version control (SVN)

• TortoiseSVN: http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads
• RapidSVN: http://rapidsvn.tigris.org/
• Subclipse: http://subclipse.tigris.org/ (eclipse svn plugin)

Version control (Git)

• msysgit: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/
• TortoiseGit: http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/

Styling

• Firebug: http://getfirebug.com/
• GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/
• (X)HTML Validator
• CSS Validator
• Irfanview

Desktop Environment (tools to make working with windows easier)

• GridMove: http://jgpaiva.dcmembers.com/gridmove.html
• ShellFolderFix (Windows 7): http://www.sevenforums.com/customizatio ... -size.html

Other Tools

• Visual color picker: http://www.linxexplorer.com/colorpicker.html
• ColorZilla: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
• The php manual http://www.php.net/docs.php
• Expresso: http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm (Regex Builder for many languages)
• Mysql Workbench: http://dev.mysql.com/workbench/ (visual db designer)
• Typetester: http://www.typetester.org/ (Type design tool)

[Erik Frèrejean]

A list for mac users.
Text editor /IDE

• Xcode Isn't developed for php/html use but it does the trick: http://developer.apple.com/tools/macosxtools.html
• Smultron: http://tuppis.com/smultron/
• Textwrangler: http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

FTP Client

• Cyberduck: http://cyberduck.ch/

Diff tools

• FileMerge (ships with Xcode)

Webserver (and environment)

• MAMP: http://www.mamp.info/

Other:

• SmartSVN: http://www.syntevo.com/smartsvn/

[edit]
Sorry missed the "free" part

[platinum_2007]

Other:

ColorZilla : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271

[UseLess]

Greetings,

Other:

• The php manual http://www.php.net/docs.php

There are downloadable versions so you can have it locally... either is handy for those moments when you forget the parameter sequence for a function etc.

[3Di]

Unfortunately most of the tools I use are not free-ware, being the bests though. IMHO.

Pass it on..

[ToonArmy]

Operating system:

• Ubuntu
• Debian

Styling:

• Firebug
• GIMP

[onehundredandtwo]

Who could forget these?

Styling:

• (X)HTML Validator
• CSS Validator
• And occasionally I might use Irfanview

onehundredandtwo.

[EXreaction]

I prefer WAMP because of the nicer UI:
http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php

Also, for those who want to setup a virtual machine for development (good to test stuff on a *nix server if you are using Windows):
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

And for a subversion client on Windows:
http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads

[kmklr72]

RapidSVN is a pretty good Subversion GUI:
http://rapidsvn.tigris.org

[bonelifer]

I just wanted to point out that there are compatibility problem with Notepad++ in Vista. Also there is a builtin FTP client that can be used to open files from your website and save them. If you are unfortunately using 56k dialup, then remember to save each file separately instead of with the save all button, else you could end up with some files not saving.

[EXreaction]

RapidSVN is a pretty good Subversion GUI:
http://rapidsvn.tigris.org

Nice to see an option besides TortoiseSVN for Windows. TortoiseSVN is getting better, but I am still afraid to update if everything seems to be working (can't tell you how many times in the past I updated TortoiseSVN only to find out that they severely broke it).

I just wanted to point out that there are compatibility problem with Notepad++ in Vista. Also there is a builtin FTP client that can be used to open files from your website and save them. If you are unfortunately using 56k dialup, then remember to save each file separately instead of with the save all button, else you could end up with some files not saving.

What compatibility problem? I've been using Notepad++ on Vista for about two years and on Win7 since the RC was released.

[kmklr72]

I have also been using Notepad++ on Vista and 7 without problems. As for Rapidsvn, it haven't had too many problems with it, of course, nothing beats the good old terminal commands.

[igorw]

Do keep posts in this topic limited to software recommendations.

[Sajaki]

• IDE
  • Zend Community edition http://www.zend.com/en/community/pdt
  • how to started with the zend debugger : http://forums.zend.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=962
• Development Webservers:
  • Zend Server Community Edition : http://www.zend.com/en/products/server/ ... E_Download
  • Wampserver (Windows) : http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php
  • Mamp (OS X) http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html
• text editors (OS X)
  • Smultron : http://tuppis.com/smultron/
  • Textwrangler : http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

[ameeck]

Netbeans is a great IDE, primarily made for Java, but fully supporting PHP.