IDE Stands for Integrated Development Environment. IDE facilitates the web developer for software and web development, including editing, debugging and build automation.
In general, most IDE in bare minimum includes the following:
Code Editor
Code Editor to write and edit source code such as HTML, JavaScript, PHP etc
Debugging or Testing Environment
Way to figure out the issue within the code, by locating the errors within the code
Compiler
Compiler compiles the source code or computer program to an executable program
Build Automation
Running or scripting automated tasks as needed by the program or soft wares
Talking about PHP IDE
I am WordPress Developer by profession and Laravel Newbie. I am big fan of Sublime Text and continue to use it for writing HTML and CSS stuff.
Since I started learning Laravel and taking OOP much more seriously, I quickly needed to learn using an IDE. I had been learning a lot from this awesome site that teaches me Laravel and was first introduced to PHP Strom. PHP Storm for sure is a featured pack IDE and the team behind it always push hard to make it even better. It gets major changes and updates frequently so we as a developer can save time and effort when coding.
I downloaded the trail version of PHP Storm and ever since I had been in love with the IDE.
Why I chose PHP Storm
I started using PHP Storm since Version 8. At the point of writing both of my core development softwares/framework is supported by PHP Storm viz WordPress and Laravel.
If you looking to learn more about the ide, details can be found in the website. Why not download a trail and give it a go.
If you want to be awesome with PHP Strom, Larcasts have a free series on how to be awesome on PHP Storm on how to use this IDE.
Here is a short intro about the IDE