Posted by Sanders Kaufman on 09/25/07 12:40

"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:jd7gf3dmjimm6oq9iq0af9a5nhd7svfpak@4ax.com...
> .oO(Sanders Kaufman)

>>I tried out Eclipse, but it was very difficult to figure out.
>
> Sure, it can take some time to get used to it. But that's an issue you
> have to deal with in every complex application. If you've never worked
> with an image editor like Paint Shop Pro for example, you would have the
> same problems and would have to work your way through to get familiar
> with it, which is not that easy because of its complexity.

PSP is a good example.
I opened that one and, since it works the way all similar graphic apps work,
it was easy to figure out.
Then, I tried GIMP - a very popular program among the twidgets.
I gave up trying to use it because the interface was so *weird*.


>>I'm no IDE newbie - but that thing was just *weird*.
>
> Different maybe, but not weird.

That's just being argumentative there is what that is.


>>It's designed for Java - and has to be modified to do PHP well.
>
> All you need is the PDT plugin, which integrates very well. Even for
> Java development you need a lot of additional plugins. A naked Eclipse
> installation can't do much out-of-the-box. Eclipse itself is just the
> framework without much practical function. It's the plugins that make it
> a usable and freely customizable IDE.

I always believed the hype that it's and IDE.
I never realized it was simply a framework upon which folks *build* IDE's.
That just further reinforces my position that I would NOT recommend it as an
editor - especially to a newbie.



>>If you're a Java programmer who needs PHP, too - Eclipse is probably best.
>>But if you're looking for a PHP/HTML editor (the subject question) - Zend
>>is
>>much easier.
>
> Depends.
>
> For HTML/XML/CSS/JS/AJAX... stuff there's also another very nice project
> called Aptana. It's available as a standalone application or as a set of
> Eclipse plugins, which is a very convenient way to have it all under the
> same hood.



>
>>... for a price.
>
> If I can have the same or even more for free, why waste money?

Because, as you so clearly pointed out - Eclipse is not an IDE unto itself.
You gotta do a bunch of stuff to make it so.

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