Practising PHP ... the easy way

HTML and JavaScript are so easy to practise and experiment with because they are client side languages. All you need is a text editor and a web browser. Whereas PHP is a server-side language, meaning you need a server on which to host the code. Increasingly, however, it has become easier and easier to learn PHP without a complicated setup.

MAMP and WAMP have been around for quite a while now and are great packages for testing MySQL and PHP, but even easier to get started with is HyperEdit (OS X). And yes, it had to happen sooner or later, there is an app on the iPad for writing and testing PHP called Kodiak PHP.

There are other apps on OS X (and Windows) with the same functionality as HyperEdit, but none that I've found as easy to get started with and which cut through all the IDE fuss to be something that is quick and simple to use. Kodiak matches this ease of use, and is a dream for anyone who wants to code on the sofa in the evening.

Kodiak does require some cut and paste since it doesn't have "open in" functionality and sharing is limited to emailing code out of the app (at present), but it still makes a useful developer tool. And while HyperEdit and Kodiak don't have their own MySQL databases like MAMP and WAMP, you can work with linked files and in this way do a lot of preparation and testing without leaving the apps.

In many instances Kodiak and HyperEdit can save time and show you instant results. They also have the ability to display the HTML code that has been rendered along with the visual output, which I find a useful touch.

Update: "Open in ..." functionality added Kodiak PHP on 10 July 2013.

Second Update: In addition to Kodiak PHP there is also DraftCode PHP on iOS. And in addition to WAMP a beta version of MAMP has now been released for Windows.

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