Well then I don't know Emacs that well then. I wasn't aware of all this functionality and will definately investigate, but I still think for a hobbyist programming something like Netbeans or Eclipse is very easy to use, user friendly, and the learning curve would probably be not as bad or as intimidating.
if you're struggling with something like screen real estate then you're probably using the IDE wrong. Most IDE's have collapsible panels. My NetBeans setup is a glorified text editor with the project management view (files and directories and such) all collapsed as i don't want to see these constantly. Eclipse has this feature as well.
Emacs and vim are great tools for quickly editing a file and updating some code on a remote linux box. I use vim every day, but managing a huge project with total 10k lines of code distributed over hundreds of files with a tool like vim is a nightmare. For working on projects, go with and IDE like Eclipse or Netbeans, especially if you're doing multiple mini-projects. For small "hello world" apps that aren't gonna do much intensive stuff, use vim.
As for the debate between Netbeans or Eclipse, its a matter of personal choice. I have worked with both and I prefer using Netbeans (I'm still a bit green and Netbeans has been a huge help). The more expert coders have been known to use Eclipse but I'm not too crazy about the whole feel for it.
You might be interested to try out NetBeans 6.5 then. It has built-in support for PHP (at last) and its a very nice IDE to have when you decide to expand on your skills.
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Ok, so where do we download it then?
Well then I don't know Emacs that well then. I wasn't aware of all this functionality and will definately investigate, but I still think for a hobbyist programming something like Netbeans or Eclipse is very easy to use, user friendly, and the learning curve would probably be not as bad or as intimidating.
if you're struggling with something like screen real estate then you're probably using the IDE wrong. Most IDE's have collapsible panels. My NetBeans setup is a glorified text editor with the project management view (files and directories and such) all collapsed as i don't want to see these constantly. Eclipse has this feature as well. Emacs and vim are great tools for quickly editing a file and updating some code on a remote linux box. I use vim every day, but managing a huge project with total 10k lines of code distributed over hundreds of files with a tool like vim is a nightmare. For working on projects, go with and IDE like Eclipse or Netbeans, especially if you're doing multiple mini-projects. For small "hello world" apps that aren't gonna do much intensive stuff, use vim. As for the debate between Netbeans or Eclipse, its a matter of personal choice. I have worked with both and I prefer using Netbeans (I'm still a bit green and Netbeans has been a huge help). The more expert coders have been known to use Eclipse but I'm not too crazy about the whole feel for it.
You might be interested to try out NetBeans 6.5 then. It has built-in support for PHP (at last) and its a very nice IDE to have when you decide to expand on your skills.