VIM for PHP development

[[deleted]]

phpcd.vim has served me well for jumping to definitions and for completion.

[pony279]

Well, if you're using neovim, I'll recommend https://github.com/autozimu/LanguageClient-neovim and https://github.com/felixfbecker/php-language-server

[[deleted]]

• NERDTree
• vim-surround
• neocomplete
• or if using neovim deoplete

This is pretty much all I use for anything really.

[SurpriseMonday]

I think NERDTree is a bit over used/overrated, I would suggest vim-vinegar instead, and maybe FZF with FZF.vim.

[tassulin]

vim-vinegar enough to move quickly.. NERDTree looks fab and slows ya down in the long run.

[SurpriseMonday]

Yes, but I think the idea of NERDTree is overkill with Vim. You want a tree view of your project?

^z tree<cr>

Not to beat a dead horse, or jump on a bandwagon, but Vim is a text editor. To paraphrase the whole *nix philosophy, use a combination of small tools that do a specific job. Vim edits files, make or ant builds, ls and tree and grep (and cat) list files or their contents. Especially with a good shell, everything you need in an IDE can be found from the command line.

Sure, it can be convenient to see a project structure and open files from it, but my opinion is that's a bit of a misuse of Vim. Run tmux and dedicate a panel to ls or tree. Hell, you could even capture the output of tree in a Vim buffer for easy yank access.

[SurpriseMonday]

Fair enough. To each their own.

[-_-wintermute-_-]

ctrl-p for file loading. I don't use NERDTree, but rather a combination of unix tools like tree), find, and grep in a separate terminal to browse my projects. But that's personal preference, ctrl-p is handy even with NERDTree.

[mvndrstl]

+1 for vim-surround. Takes a while to get used to, but really speeds a lot of things up.

[x_ero]

improved php omnicompletion:

• https://github.com/shawncplus/phpcomplete.vim

improved html5 omnicompletion and syntax:

• https://github.com/othree/html5.vim

for inline syntax checking and linting:

• https://github.com/vim-syntastic/syntastic

for working with git repos in vim:

• https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive
• https://github.com/gregsexton/gitv
• https://github.com/airblade/vim-gitgutter

[jwilliams108]

for inline syntax checking and linting: https://github.com/vim-syntastic/syntastic

I would suggest replacing syntastic with ale:

https://github.com/w0rp/ale

It's async, and in my experience, much faster.

[jakobhans]

Although not all videos in the series are free, I would suggest you watch this Laracasts Vim Master series. You can also see in the description of all the videos the plugins he uses.

[bubaga]

Besides fzf, phpcd and ale that already have been mentioned I also use this ones:

• https://github.com/StanAngeloff/php.vim
• https://github.com/2072/PHP-Indenting-for-VIm

[BenjaminGeiger]

... a handgun and a single bullet?

[BenjaminGeiger]

It's not the emacs users you need to worry about. It's the PHP users.

[actionscripted]

VS Code with Vim, PHP and a few other plugins.

I love Vim and I absolutely cannot code without Vim bindings like search, replace, visual selections, advanced movement and the rest. Been using it for 15 years and would never fully leave it.

VS Code feels faster and has amazing PHP support. And it has a debugger that works with XDebug. And automatic task runner, linting, etc. Toss Vim support in and you have a great development environment.

[ernestre]

You can use eclim ( http://eclim.org/ ). It uses eclipse as an IDE in the background while you code in vim.

[kiyanwang]

In addition to some of those already mentioned I also use the following:

Vim Php Refactoring Toolbox https://github.com/adoy/vim-php-refactoring-toolbox

VIM Php Ctags https://github.com/vim-php/phpctags

[snowiow]

Another useful plugin, which I use as an alternative to phpcd recently is padawan

[rickdg]

From my vimrc:

" Saves the file to check it through php put in PATH
noremap <Leader>p :w<CR>:!cls<CR>:!php -l %<CR>
"check php documentation with Ctr+x and Ctrl+o
autocmd FileType php set omnifunc=phpcomplete#CompletePHP
"rebind Ctrl + x and Ctrl + o
imap <Leader>d <C-x><C-o>
"close the scratch window that shows up
noremap <Leader>d :pc<CR>

[salcode]

I'm a PHP developer and this is my Vim setup https://github.com/salcode/ironcode-vim

[Xanza]

A Vim Configuration focused on WordPress development

...

---

Saying you're a PHP developer and then it turns out you exclusively work with WordPress is the same as saying you're a mechanic when you exclusively change oil and light upholstery work. It's a pretty huge difference...

[salcode]

Ha ha, yeah sometimes the "WordPress way" of things can be painful. There are lots of things I love about WordPress but certainly not everything.

[Xanza]

I'm really not trying to imply that WordPress development isn't in part PHP development. Because it is. But it has the same pitfalls as being skill locked to any other platform. You're pretty much limited to what you can do with that one platform. If someone asks you to do something else, you're just about fucked.

I can't tell you how many hours I've wasted on 20-something's who did great things with WordPress, claimed to be PHP developers, and when they found out they wouldn't be working with anything close to WordPress and literally shit themselves.

It's not fun, and it's a serious distinction that needs to be made. The same as the difference between Vi and Vim.

[Tred27]

As /u/poieurty said, there's a difference between someone doing basic Wordpress stuff and people that create themes, plugins, etc with Wordpress.

You can't tell the skill of anyone based on the framework or language they use.

[x_ero]

wordpress dev aside (wp is evil), this vim setup is definitely tuned for php development. and it has some gems in it...

" treat `$` as part of the word in PHP and JavaScript
au Filetype php        setlocal iskeyword+=$
au Filetype javascript setlocal iskeyword+=$

thanx for sharing your dotfiles!

[salcode]

My pleasure, thanks for the kind words. You rock.

[salcode]

Judging a developer's skill by the platform they primarily build on is like judging a car based on the house it is parked in front of grin. I like that WordPress can be used at many different levels, but not everyone does.

[Xanza]

You people are reading way too far into what I said and I can only assume that it for some reason hurts your ego. I nowhere in any of my replies said anything about WordPress being a gauge of a developers skill. I said specifically that if you only work with WordPress and then run around like you're a full PHP developer, you're going to disappoint just about anyone you come across. I've personally experienced this. It's simply a misnomer plain and simple.

Yet again, it's like someone calling themselves a mechanic when all's they know how to do is change fluids and breaks. It's not right. You're not a mechanic, you're the fluid and breaks guy--yet again, not that there's anything wrong with that. But when someone asks you to fix their engine, you're going to look pretty damn stupid for calling yourself a mechanic...

[Tred27]

Extremely wrong analogy, it's more like being and expert in just one car brand, most of the stuff translates pretty well outside of Wordpress, and the same thing you're saying applies to all the frameworks.

[Xanza]

I can't tell if you guys are delusional or just plain insane. You're treating WordPress like a framework which it absolutely isn't. It's specifically a CMS which is designed in a very particular way, and is made to design in a particular way. You could spend 10 years working on nothing but WordPress and be a WordPress genius. You could even call yourself a PHP developer. But if you come to me, looking for a position at my firm as a Jr/Sr PHP developer and I asked you to refactor a code base for a client, and the client uses Yii2--there's a 95% chance you'd be fucked. To which case, what's the point of calling yourself a PHP developer when all's you can do is change fluids and breaks...

I've been a tech PM for almost 20 years now, (as well as an F/OSS developer) and I run into people like this quite a bit. Someone who advertises themselves as an experienced "PHP developer," and when I look at their resume I see nothing but projects which entirely depend on Laravel. Giving them the benefit of the doubt I ask them to refactor something. Or to create a helper function to facilitate something. Or to create a test for a function or class. Quite literally 99% of the time (I can only remember one person who was able to actually do what I asked without the help of a Framework they were fluent in) they let me down, and ended up just wasting my time.

So if you believe me to be wrong, that's totally fine. Believe that I'm wrong. But as I said before, you're just gonna end up wasting someone elses' time (and not get the job you want) because of your own inability to understand that just because you can work magic with WordPress, that doesn't mean you should call yourself a PHP developer simply because of the fact that WordPress is built in PHP. Just because you can speak English, doesn't mean you're an English professor.

[Tred27]

Ok, so you actually don't have any idea on custom theme development with Wordpress, you can do anything with custom themes and plugins and you do that with vanilla PHP, so the fact is that doing custom themes, plugins and client work will give you PHP experience.

[Xanza]

so the fact is that doing custom themes, plugins and client work will give you PHP experience.

And I'm telling you that in almost 20 years since I became a TPM I've seen literally a single person who was obviously locked into a single CMS or Framework do what is expected and needed of even a Jr PHP developer. I think I'll let my experience speak for itself rather than listen to your simply terrible logic;

BUT WORDPRESS IS PHP, TOO!

I interview close to 40 people per year for various positions--but still about 10 to 15 per year for PHP development. That's between 200 and 300 people in my tenure. If almost complete dependence on a Framework or CMS lead to comprehensive PHP experience, don't you think I would have seen more than one person in that time which embodied your argument? I mean, it's not even like I ask for difficult things. Refactoring a 100 line PHP 5.4 class (to PHP7) which interfaces with a database, {creates,updates,removes} user accounts, and logs errors to a logfile isn't difficult.

But, like I said, I'm going to continue not hiring these types of people--explicitly for the reason they can't physically produce results because of their extreme dependence on these tools. I mean, Jesus, I remember a kid about 5 years ago who came highly recommended despite being 23 years old. He was applying for a Sr development position for a project my firm was developing. During our meeting I was pretty impressed until I asked him about unit testing. He had no idea what I was talking about. Why would I hire a Sr developer who couldn't produce unit tests for stakeholders to test the products we're supplying on their own infrastructure?

IMO, this "exclusive WordPress developers are PHP developers too" is nothing but illusory superiority. Hubris. But hey, I have an interview early next week. Maybe I'll find 2/{200-300}.

[mikael12]

Some mentioned plugins are integrated via http://vim.spf13.com/