As many of you budding php developers know, Zend released their “Neon” version of Studio for Eclipse (Zend Studio 6.0) some time ago, it is perhaps (as far as I know) the most ambitious PHP IDE to date.
My list of gripes about this project are as follows:
“Path must include project and resource name:”
This is usually followed by a /database.php or /config.php.
It seems to happen on the initial Build when opening Zend Studio and occasionally when doing subsequent builds. The problem is that Code Completion doesn’t seem to work after this error occurs.
However, there has been talk that this will be fixed in an upcoming release[1].
It’s not a major bug but it’s just really annoying, like walking into the movies and seeing a fly come out of the popcorn machine.
The old… “I’m running as slow as a pregnant yak” trick
For some reason the whole environment feels a lot more sluggish compared to Zend Studio 5.5, I’m running it on a Mac Book Pro with 2GB ram so it should have plenty of power available.
Not being able to Cancel a Build and Saving a File gets added to the end of the queue!
If you’re Building a PHP Project and the Builder gets stuck for some reason it wont finish the rest of the actions in the queue. This means if you started a Build, then carried on working on a file, then you decided to Save the File it would stick the Saving action at the bottom of the queue after the Building action.
So, then if the Build gets stuck (no ability to Cancel it) the Save never happens, enough to make you wet your pants and cry.
No Smarty Integration?
For some reason I couldn’t easily create .tpl files from the File Browser, I had to follow a reasonably complex process just to add the file type.[2]
However, I’ve recently stumbled across a plug-in for Eclipse which looks like it will add the Smarty integration right into the environment. Fingers crossed this will work![3]
Sometimes projects will stop being recognised as “PHP Projects”
I don’t have a reference for when this happens, and I haven’t heard other people complaining about it.
The frustration is that it makes actions like “New->PHP Class” impossible, and you can’t “Build Project” from the menu so the Code Completion doesn’t work. I have yet to find a solution to this problem.
Overall
Ok, so it really grinds my gears at times. Especially when crucial components like Code Completion stop working, or when I can’t save a file I’ve been working on.
But…
Overall Zend Studio for Eclipse is a damn fine piece of software, and you can’t help but admire the ambition of the developers to provide a real IDE to PHP Developers. Bravo Fellas!
Zend Studio for Eclipse Resources
References
[1] https://www.zend.com/en/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=6681&start=0&S=cb8ef6808a442d884837ee72783691ad
[2] http://www.zend.com/forums/index.php?start=0&t=msg&th=5842
[3] http://code.google.com/p/smartypdt/
Filed in Nerd musings | Tags: eclipse, ide, php, php ide, zend studio
