Back in 2011 I created the Vdebug plugin for Vim, which provides a visual debugger interface for debuggers that support the DBGP protocol, the main one being Xdebug for PHP. I created it mostly for myself, as I wasn't happy with the other plugins out there. At the time I was almost entirely developing in PHP, but Python was the first language that I really enjoyed, so Vdebug was an opportunity to return to it.
Something I commonly want to do is evaluate a bit of code and insert the result into my Vim window. For example, if I want to generate a 40-character UID, I could use ruby's SecureRandom class:
Last year, I wrote a post about using Vim as a PHP IDE. It turned out to be pretty popular, and I've been updating it despite the fact that I now write considerably more ruby than PHP.
This isn't a blog about why you should use Vim. That's obvious. If it isn't, read Why do those nutheads use Vi? Instead, this a tutorial about using Vim as a fully-fledged IDE, and specifically for PHP projects. Many Vim users would only use it for dipping in and out of the odd file on their computer, or maybe just on a remote server during an SSH session. I'm here to tell you that it can be configured to be more efficient and productive than your favourite IDE.