Eclipse opens doors to PHP crowd
The Eclipse Foundation on Tuesday released Eclipse PHP Development Tools 1.0, software that it hopes will open Eclipse up to the millions of PHP Web developers.
Eclipse has become a widely used integrated development environment for Java programmers. But scripting, or dynamic, languages like PHP have become increasingly popular, particularly for the front-end development. Now people trained in Eclipse can write PHP applications and get access to about 1,400 plug-ins.
But Zend has chosen to participate in the project and will build commercial tools on top of the Eclipse PHP Development Tools software. It plans to introduce the commercial tools in the first quarter of next year.
Why? It's better to disrupt your own business than have someone else do it to, he says. The tools project also makes PHP--already used by 4.5 million people--potentially more appealing to programmers looking for a better tool or already familiar with Eclipse. About 50 percent of PHP developers already use Java, he said.
The Eclipse tools, combined with the Zend Platform, which acts much like an application server, Zend and other vendors are making PHP more corporate-friendly, de Visser said.
"We look at (Microsoft's) .Net as a good example. We're very comfortable mimicking (that) and knowing that companies want an alternative because they don't want to buy the whole Microsoft stack."
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
Granted PHP is a mess in several ways, security being the most pressing. Hopefully Zend will finally start fixing security issues. Still, this is another good tool to put in the growing Eclipse toolbox.