PhpStorm and why I use it

For those who didn’t have any prior experience with JetBrains IDEs and applications, I can say that they are always top quality and very well known among large groups of developers. In this article, however, I’ll be focusing just on their web development IDE called PhpStorm (or the second IDE without PHP support called WebStorm), its advantages, disadvantages and usage cases.

As I’m a JavaScript addict, I primarily use PhpStorm for JavaScript development, testing and debugging. The IDE helps me by providing me with various powerful tools such as JS debugger (also can be found in many modern browsers), code completion and intel with documentation and other things. For the full list refer to the Pros/Cons section below. I really recommend buying or at least trying it (like me) because I think it’s totally worth it.

I was using Sublime Text 2 before but it lacks more advanced features that I sometimes need. All in all, PhpStorm is nicer and more attractive for me.

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Pros

• supports multiple operating systems 
• quick start and easy on memory
• full-featured web development IDE
• Intelligent PHP, JS, HTML and CSS editor
• supports code completion, documentation and lint
• has native ZenCoding support
• can be extended with plenty useful plugins (e.g. VimEditor)
• can synchronize files from local to server and back

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[box type=”cons”]

Cons

• require Oracle Java to run properly
• commercial
• too complex for some developers

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BONUS:

If you find PhpStorm’s editor font or any other editor’s font hard-readable or simply unattractive, you can try Anonymous Pro, a free font made exclusively for developers.