I use Visual Studio to develop C#, C++ for about 10 years.
Is there a free or inexpensive development platform similar to Visual Studio Express (maybe even a plugin for Visual Studio!) that would allow me to develop and test my code?
I’ve got a number of PHP books, but I’d like to test the things I’ve learned before tossing them out onto a live website!
Eclipse PDT is great for those who are familiar with visual studio. It integrates with Zend Debugger, has an integrated browser for rendering pages, and allows for code-completion (IntelliSense) and class-refactoring.
http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/