In November 2013 I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to present a session at DrupalCamp NW on why it's time for Drupal developers to be using a proper IDE. The session used JetBrains PhpStorm as an example, but presented the case including other popular IDEs like Eclipse and NetBeans as well.

1. PhpStorm and Drupal
Chris Cohen
@chriscohen

2. Chris Cohen
6 years with Drupal
Formally trained developer
Commitment to documentation and quality

3. Why IDE?
Makes your life easier
Highlight code problems as you type
Don't have to remember exact
function/method names
Makes your code better
Fewer unnoticed mistakes
Better style and maintainability
Makes other people's lives easier!
Your code works for other people
Your code is easier to maintain by others

4. I Need More Convincing...
Code & Object Hierarchy
Jump straight to any function or method
Keep track of what inherits from what else

5. I Need Even More Convincing...
Step Debugger
Stop page load at any point in
the code
Examine exact state of
variables and call stack

6. MOAR CONVINCING!...
Really?!
Okay then...
Profiler Integration
Show execution time per
function
Show time spent in each
function or query

7. EVEN MOAR CONVINCING!...
VCS Integration
Git commit straight from IDE
with visual diffs
Visual merging!

8. IDE Choices
Free and clunky
Free and clunky
Not so clunky!
Not free :(

9. Why PhpStorm? It costs MONEY!
£76 per year (individual licence)
It's rock solid
It “just works”
Aren't these the reasons you spent extra to buy a
Mac?!

10. Downsides
It runs on Java! X( - but it “just works”
It is resource-intensive – that doesn't HAVE to mean slow
It's more complicated to use – but you're a developer, you
can handle it!
“I don't need it. I'm fine with Notepad++ /
Dreamweaver / OtherTextEditor”
Don't use this an excuse for “I can't be
bothered to learn a proper tool”

11. Some Configuration...
Basics
Line numbers
Whitespace on save
Warning colour!

12. Some Configuration...
PHP CodeSniffer

13. Volunteers Required!

14. Thanks
Questions?
Chris Cohen
@chriscohen