Member Avatar for aparnesh

Hi Friends

Till now, I have been coding my PHP files mainly in Notepad. I had used a few PHP IDEs earlier, but were not satisfied. I found them too cumbersome and some were quite unstable. Now it's becoming rather tedious to edit in Notepad. So I am looking for a simple, good and FREE PHP editor.
PHP.net lists some free PHP editors, but it's difficult to ascertain how good they are. So I am asking you, what are your experiences ? What would you recommend ?
My Requirements are :
1. It should run on Windows XP
2. It should be Free
3. It should be simple. From my experience, I have found that many of the features of most IDEs (PHP or otherwise) are used quite rarely, but they unnecessarily clutter the screen and hog resources. So a simple stable IDE / Editor with less esoteric features would be just fine.

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by casper_wang

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Several people in this thread (, , , , , , ) have already suggested editors and IDEs. The most useful next step is a pragmatic, stability-first checklist tuned to your requirements (Windows XP, free, simple) and to readers who find this thread years later: pick an editor that actually runs well on your OS, add a tiny external toolchain for linting and quick testing, and only graduate to a heavier IDE when you need real debugging or project management.

If you want lightweight and stable on older Windows builds, try small, native editors such as Geany or SciTE (both are simple, fast, and have basic project/syntax features). If you need a free step-up with integrated PHP help and debugger support, Komodo Edit or NetBeans provide more PHP-aware features but use more RAM. Avoid modern tools that require newer Windows releases unless you can upgrade the OS.

Keep the workflow minimal but safe: use your editor for editing, run PHP's syntax check before executing, and use a local server for quick functional checks. For basic syntax checking and a tiny local server (if your PHP version supports it), use the commands below:

php -l path/to/file.php
php -S localhost:8000   # (requires PHP 5.4+)

If you ever need line-by-line debugging, install Xdebug in your PHP build and attach an IDE that supports DBGp (NetBeans, Komodo, etc.). For stability on XP, prefer portable installers or older stable releases and keep backups or version control. Final tip: start with a tiny editor plus php -l; if that workflow becomes limiting, move up to a fuller IDE.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for somedude3488

i use notepad++ and i have liked it so far. they have some pretty nice features and some great plugins people have built for it.

Member Avatar for stephen84s

Eclipse does have some plugins for PHP

Member Avatar for nav33n

I use devphp. It has some bugs, but still, its good ! :)

Member Avatar for roh3x2n

I use notepad++.

Member Avatar for GGAB

Three points for notepad++. It's strenght is it's simplicity, and is very lightweight.

Member Avatar for casper_wang

one of his requirments was "free"

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