I got really tired of using notepad to write codes for a drupal theme. It involves both XHTML and PHP codes. I am looking for a good freeware that will help me with these two languages combined, and maybe even MySQL in the future. I found both HTML Kit and PHP Designer. I’ve seen some really good reviews on both of these two products. But I am really unfamiliar with these and wondered which one would suite me better.

HTML has a lot of plug-ins, do I have to download something to edit XHTML and PHP codes?

It seems that PHP Designer requires downloading XAMPP to create a webserver on my computer. Is this really necessary?

You do not need XAMPP or WAMP (both are installation tools) but you do need the PHP executable for PHP Designer to be able to debug the script. HTML Kit will not do this but PHP Designer does.

If you do not have a webserver with PHP and you are trying to write and test PHP you will not get anywhere with any kind of editor. PHP is a server side language meaning that to use it you must have a server that has PHP installed on it. Unlike HTML where you can just double click the file and it will open your default browser with PHP you must have a server running and use a URL to access it.

Normally on your PC the servers address will be localhost (or the name of your computer) or if you use an IP address it would be 127.0.0.1. So to run the default index page on your local PC you would open your browser and type into the address bar http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/ and what ever is the index page will display.

Personally, I like PHP Designer. I never warmed to HTML-kit. But I wouldn't use either alone. For my web design and coding, I usually use a combination of PHP Designer and AceHTML Freeware. PHP Designer for coding PHP-heavy pages, and AceHTML for pages with little or no PHP and for syntax-checking PHP-generated pages. AceHTML has a lot of really nice, creative features for working with HTML, and I find the two programs complement each other well.

If you haven't used either PHP Designer or HTML-kit much yet, I'd say go ahead and install them both. Try them out, play with them, see what works for you. Because what works for me or for Houdini or for anyone else might be totally wrong for you.

i've been playing around with html-kit for about a day and a half, it serves my purposes, all i wanted it for was syntax highlighting, i never did get the hang of all the wysiwyg editors, they never seem to do it right. the code almost always ends up messy, and doesn't look the same. for simple syntax highlighting support, the html-kit was perfect for me... but then again some people want more

also i find that for testing purposes, sami http server *on windows machines* along with php works great, the only problem that i have with it is updating the server directory when i add files... i have to individually add the file.... i'll be looking for an alternative server soon, but for its small size and memory footprint it has worked in my situation much better then apache could have *i don't need a full fleged web server to test php, just a simple on* on my laptop...

This post has been edited by t0nedef: Jul 20 2006, 12:19 AM

I use PHP Designer myself. There was just something about HTML Kit I didn't like. Maybe it was the plug-ins that you had to get for certain things. But PHP Designer is good for me. It has syntax highlighting, debugging scripts (I have Xammp installed), you can code many scripting languages: HTML, PHP, Javascript, VBscript, Java, C#. I don't use most of those, and it has more. It has a folder for SQL too, but I haven't used that yet. I would recommend PHP Designer.

only if you want to test php on your computer before uploading it to your website, other then that, no its not necessary. and if you already have a php enabled server on your computer, its not necessary then either.

i don't know about you, but i think the ability to test my stuff before uploading is great, plus it saves time, i would much rather edit things in a directory on my computer, test them on the spot, then upload code that i know works, then upload code, find out i made an error and end up reuploading possibly multiple times till i've killed all the bugs

Sounds like PHP is the winner. I will definitely setup Apach/PHP/MySQL on my computer for testing purposes. I think it will be a valuable tool to have. I guess the editors just gives me an advanced notepad to be able to see my tabs easily.

Go with PHP Designer 2006, it is my favourite freeware editor on Windows and the only downsides I can say about it is that it does not support UTF-8 yet and the slow tabs, do not know why it is slow though. HTML kit used to be good in the past, but personally when comparing them now, I would really choose PHP Designer.

And having a WAMP or LAMP Server on your own machine is really comfortable, I can't imagine uploading every time with ftp to test the script, it just takes time and time is money, with time you will know how to control Apache and PHP+MySQL on your own machine, besides there are plenty of support on the Internet, tutorials and even IRC channels on freenode server with people who can gladly help. Good Luck