Dreamweaver

[Seijun]

I have always read that you shouldn't use dreamweaver for php (so I don't) but it has be wondering.. Does Dreamweaver automatically mess php up just by opening it, or does one have to actually edit and save php in dreamweaver to have problems?

[jzieba]

It will not mess it up if you do not save it.

I use ExpressionWeb which is similar to Dreamweaver. I can open the php file as "text" rather than "html" in which case it does not mess up the formatting.

[CHMOD000]

Notepad++ is my editor of choice. It's Free, and you can style it so it doesn't burn your eyeballs.

[Astonished Man]

I use Dreamweaver extensively for editing php. Never have had any problems. Of course, source mode. Occasionally I will open a php file and it accidentally be in design mode. I just switch to code mode and have never had it re-write anything. I've used it to create entire dynamic php sites without problem.

It has some great tools for selecting sets of brackets and having the code color coded helps see what is what.

[paddster7]

I have to agree with Astonished Man. I've used Dreamweaver CS3, and now CS4, for php coding. I never had any "re-formatting" issue when saving from Dreamweaver where it messed up the php code.

[m3mph1s]

I'm also going to have to agree. I work with PHP files every day, always in Dreamweaver, and have never had any issues...

[marthasp6s]

It will not mess it up if you do not save it.

I use ExpressionWeb which is similar to Dreamweaver. I can open the php file as "text" rather than "html" in which case it does not mess up the formatting.

Not sure about what you mean by "messing" php code. Actually I use Dreamweaver it exclusively for editing html, php and shtml files and never had any issues. BTW, nice to know about an alternative too, but for now I think I will stick to DW. It even does the validation for you, which is so much essential to get your site's HTML markup validated at W3c.

[oatmeal]

There is a setting in Dreamweaver that allows Dreamweaver to reorganize and "correct" code.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Code Rewritting. Make sure .php is in the "Never Rewrite Code" field and check the box.

You're golden.

[ashantim10]

We used dreamweaver for our UI part and matched it with PHP during college days and up to now but haven't got any "mess" at all. Notepad++ is a good choice also. I strongly agree with CHMOD000.

Take care.

[robertmalloy7]

I use the ide of netbeens, and I think much better than Dreamweaver, also allows you to debug PHP code using Xdebug.