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dairymilkbatman's avatar

Is phpstorm essential to the early stages of learning?

Hello I am new here.

I keep having to 'alt-tab' to read docs, find CSS cheat sheets etc

I am wondering if I am slowing my progress when I could just use storm? however; I don't want to learn the complexities of another IDE and slow my progress learning code. I also despise how big storm is. I love small open source projects like my current editor; zed, works well with vim, lightweight for my old macbook, but lacks in that hover tip thing storm has.

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LaryAI's avatar

Certainly! Here’s a solution tailored to your question:

No, PhpStorm (or any specific IDE) is not essential in the early stages of learning programming or web development. Many developers start with lightweight editors like VS Code, Sublime Text, or even Vim, and do just fine. The most important thing is to focus on learning the fundamentals of coding, not the tool itself.

Pros of using a lightweight editor (like Zed or Vim):

  • Faster startup and less resource usage (great for older machines).
  • Less overwhelming for beginners.
  • Encourages learning the language and ecosystem, not just relying on IDE features.

Cons:

  • You may miss out on some productivity features like intelligent code completion, inline documentation, or refactoring tools.
  • You might need to alt-tab more often to check documentation.

PhpStorm’s advantages (and similar IDEs):

  • Powerful code completion and inline documentation (the “hover tip” you mentioned).
  • Integrated debugging, testing, and version control.
  • Can speed up workflow once you’re comfortable.

But: Learning a complex IDE can be a distraction early on. Many features are only useful once you’re writing larger projects.

Recommendation:

  • Stick with your lightweight editor while you’re learning the basics.
  • Use browser tabs for docs and cheat sheets; this is normal for all developers.
  • As you grow more comfortable, you can try out more advanced editors or IDEs and see if their features help you.
  • If you want hover tips and inline docs, consider trying VS Code with PHP and CSS extensions—it’s lightweight, open source, and has many of the features you’re looking for.

Summary:
You are not slowing your progress by not using PhpStorm. Focus on learning to code. The best editor is the one that helps you stay productive and comfortable.

Example: Adding hover tips to VS Code

If you decide to try VS Code, install these extensions for PHP and CSS support:

# PHP Intelephense for PHP code intelligence
ext install bmewburn.vscode-intelephense-client

# CSS IntelliSense for CSS hints
ext install zignd.html-css-class-completion

Happy coding! If you have more questions about editors or setup, feel free to ask.

Glukinho's avatar

PHPStorm (expecially with Laravel Idea plugin) increases coding, refactoring, debugging, searching, analyzing foreign code and many more things GREATLY. I wish I knew it long before. Just give it a try and you will never get back to simple text editors.

jlrdw's avatar

In the ai Answer it states.

Focus on learning to code.

I agree, and I will go a step further. Learn what you are coding. In other words know how to do the same thing if computers didn't even exist first.

Meaning with pencil and paper.

Like accounts payable, Accounts receivable, Payroll, etc.

I have seen so many questions by folks who did not know how to even treat an invoice.

Mega_Aleksandar's avatar

Do you think that devs even with phpstorm do not alt-tab or read docs/cheatsheets? Yeah, phpstorm makes things easier as far as I can see from videos. Personally been using VSCode with the "upgrades" from one of the series/topics here.

I would suggest you try to get your muscle memory going, remember to always open and close the brackets, start and end an html tag, always finish a line of code with a semicolon (or whatever is applicable in the language/syntax you are using). After a while, you will not even notice that and sometimes you will find the extensions to be annoying in some places when they close a tag or something.

As for coding itself, yeah, you will still need to double/tripple check the docs to see the fine print,. Once you've written or used a particular method/function enough times, you will not look at it anymore.

ian_h's avatar

Pick something you're willing to invest time in and go with that.. most solutions will not be "out of the box" and will require customisation to get the most out of them.

When I started web dev back in 2000, I was on a FreeBSD desktop and my editor of choice was a vanilla Vim instance (didn't even have/use syntax highlighting at that point). I wrote an entire forum with this setup while learning PHP and web dev in general. Some years later when I moved back to a Windows desktop, I discovered NuSphere PhpEd, which I used for years.. I tried PhpStorm (~v3 IIRC) and skipped it.. it was slow and heavy and (probably moreso) unfamiliar.

I now use PhpStorm (and have done for multiple years) after PhpEd started lacking in features/keeping up with PHP version releases but including customisations to templates, plugins, etc etc which has taken plenty of effort/time investment over the years. It's great for convenience for sure and now speeds up my productivity with the likes of being able to run PHPUnit tests from within the IDE.. have issues highlighted with EA Inspections/PHPStan analysis and refactoring... and IMO, is a more "well oiled machine" than the likes of vscode-based editors (it's tailored for PHP dev afterall, so expected).

However, despite my 25 years experience with PHP.. I don't know it all and will refer to the docs as/when needed for various reasons.. or search the web in general for things.

For quick edits... I certainly won't break out PhpStorm.. that'll be down to Vim or SublimeText... but for a "day's work".. PhpStorm has become my preferred IDE.. it does what I need it to do and I've become familiar with it.

Everything in life has pros and cons.. you just need to weigh them up and see which side of the scales fits best with your needs.

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