To justify that bold claim let me give a little background: I first started using Zend Studio at version 3, up to that point I had been using nuSpheres phpEd, but it had some serious problems that prevented me from getting what I felt I ought to be getting from it, especially considering its price. I was very reluctant to shell out on Zend Studio given the hundreds I'd spent on phpEd. But Zend were just starting out beta testing v3.5, they announced that the most "useful" beta tester would get a free Zend Studio license. It sounds quite cheap of me now, but I figured this could be my way in :) So I signed up, downloaded the first beta and set about ripping it to shreds.

I was starting out on the build of massive project, so it was ideal to really find out what could be improved, and over several months I collected together my feedback on the 3.5 betas and fed it all to Zend. They obviously liked it, because they rated me the "best" beta tester and gave me a free copy, so the work had been worth it.

My report wasn't just bugs, it was feature requests too. A vast number of those bugs were addressed in the final 3.5 release, but a lot of the features were missed out. When version 4 was released I noticed that lots of my original feature requests were now present, and with version 5 the list is virtually complete :)

So what were my feature requests that have now seen the light of day? Here's the list including my comments as sent to Zend 1.5 years ago:

Inspector Window Looses State

In the "Inspectors" window, I had a file open with a class inside of it (Board), I had that expanded and lined-up with a function. I swapped to another file (Forum) and when I return to Board again, it has collapsed the Inspector list again, so I have to go through the process of expanding out the Board class and locating my function in the list yet again. It should remember the Inspectors state between files, it would save massive amounts of time and frustration.

Result: They changed the way it worked, so the above situation is now resolved. Perfect!

Goto function / method feature

When you right-click a function or method ($this->function) it should provide the option to GOTO that function. If the function is held in another file (i.e. a separate class file), then that file should be opened automatically, and you should jump right to the function you want to follow. This should be allowed to be assigned to a keyboard short-cut as well as appearing on the right-click menu.

Result: Fully implemented and now saving me loads of clicking :)

Function Folding

Why is there no function/loop folding ability?

Result: There still isn't loop folding (an if/else block for example), but at least we have function / method / class folding now!

Function Duplication

In the Inspector list, you should be able to right-click a function and select "Duplicate" or "Copy As" and it should make a copy of that function and place the cursor right onto the name of it, ready for you to re-name it. Would save masses of cut 'n paste in large source when all you want to do is replace a function with a new version to test out a new bit of code.

Result: This still isn't a feature in version 5, which is a shame as I bet it is a common task - but they did sort of address this by allowing you to select a block of text and then Edit - Duplicate Selection. So I guess technically the feature exists.

Bookmark Issue

Boomarks finally! :) But why not make a LEFT click on the line number add a breakpoint and a RIGHT click add/remove a bookmark? There is no point having both left and right click do the same thing, especially as you're likely to set more bookmarks than you are breakpoints during development.

Result: They change the way it worked to match my suggestions totally!

Remove Selected Breakpoints / Bookmarks

A "Remove breakpoints/bookmarks from this function" feature would be fantastic. Very often I don't want to remove all breakpoint from my code, but I do for the one function I've just finished debugging. But right now I have to click them all manually. An alternative might be to "remove all breakpoints/bookmarks from the select code only" - and then you can highlight the area yourself.

Result: This is still a missing feature, and quite a useful one imho.

No "Find and Replace in Files"

No "find and replace" feature that can handle all files in the entire project / given directory / all open files? Even Homesite can do this :)

Result: They added a "Find in Files" feature! While still not as powerful as that built into Homesite, it works and that's good enough for me.

List all Breakpoints

There should be an option to list all of your breakpoints in the Messages Output window - it will just list the line numbers you have set the breakpoints on and then allow you to double-click to jump to that line (or even better, right click the message line and unset the breakpoint from there). It is quite cumbersome having to scroll through your entire code just to try and look out for those red highlighted lines.

Result: They fully implemented ALL of these suggestions! It's in the Debug Window, not the Messages Window, but that made more sense than my original request ;)

File / Project Inspector Listing Options

The File Inspector really really needs the option for functions to be listed not only alphabetically, but also in the order in which they appear in the source code. I can understand why you list them alphabetically, but lots of developers group their functions together in blocks based on what they do (i.e. a Get block, a Set block, etc) and it would be extremely useful to be able to see this.

Result: They implemented this in version 5 with ordering icons - yay!

Print Selected Lines

I could *really* use a feature where-by it only prints out the currently selected text. I often find myself copying code into a blank script or Notepad just so I can print it out, but there must surely be an easier way?

Result: The new version has the option to "Print Selected Lines" if you select text and then go to File - Print.

Built-in Database Browser

It REALLY needs MySQL integration somewhere - at least just a table browser. Ideally open in a window along-side your code - a very nice touch (that no other IDE does) would be if you could drag a field name from a SQL window onto the IDE and it inserts the name automatically for you, perhaps prefixed by the table name (optional). You could drag a whole table over and have it create all the field names for you.

Result: Version 5 has a very good built-in database explorer and query editor. But what is most interesting is this - drag a column name from the db browser window to your source code and watch what happens ;)

Conclusion

There were many other bugs and suggestions I pointed out, 62 in total! But I am really happy to see that the vast majority of my major feature suggestions have been implemented. I don't profess to hold any sway over Zend or the IDE authors in the slightest. This could all be utter coincidence. But some of my suggestions are just so specific that I can only think "hmmm" when I use them on a daily basis while working inside of Zend Studio :)

Nice one guys. Keep up the excellent work on an excellent IDE! I look forward to beta testing v6