Took a multi-year long break from PHP, WordPress, Plugins, etc. Let’s see if I can reboot on this.
PHP development Environment
- Last time I checked we were on PHP 5 and object orientation was not present in most plugins, so struggled with some questions about it. I think I need to read-up what happened since. Did a quick read-up and interesting to see how programming language developments happen in all of these languages, all in a sort-of likewise format. It would be interesting to make a site that would compare syntax for each language, probably gen-ai can spit it out. On the top you would choose your languages and on the left you would choose statements that are either build-in or are custom code or are some kind of extensions. That probably would give a nice overview. E.g. to see how every (new) feature looks like compared in PHP, NetCore, Java, Kotlin and e.g. PowerShell. I read a lot of cool stuff, probably WordPress plugin development is a nice place to play with the new things.
- Last time I checked I used Eclipse PHP, X-Debug and the Zend framework for coding and debugging. Since I now have a nice Virtual Machines server as well as a docker and k8s cluster at home, I think I will create a dedicated virtual machine (Hyper-V) for my PHP WordPress development environment. But… what is the state in 2024? I know back then Netbeans, PHPStorm were popular. I do a lot of stuff in Visual Studio Code. Have to check what is the nicest for me. Obviously need to include references to the 2 folders of WordPress and have debugging support. Will run the VM under Windows. Eclipse PDT is still nice I think. It is free. It is Eclipse and somehow I like the environment. I could also go for Jet Brains but then I will definitely go for the “all products pack” but that sets me back 350 euro a year. That is an investment for purely hobby and my wife will ask wtf this is. but I do meddle with Kotlin, Python, have to think about this. Free/open is a better direction for me I think. Especially since I have a LOT of other subscriptions already.
- Virtual Machine : I have created 2 LUN’s and for each a ISCSI IQN that allows multiple sessions. From various machines I use Hyper-V manager to manage the Virtual Machines on there and start them when I need them. This is handy because I can centralize the backup and never need to worry about losing content. Also handy because my “workstations” laptops” can be clean and explode without a prob. There is a trick to allow Docker inside a Windows Virtual Machine (nested virtualization) so that you can further virtualize inside Windows virtual machines:
Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true. It is comfortable to know that I still have 45 Tb free for virtual machines. So let’s create one for WordPress PHP plugin development - to be continued
- Virtual Machine : I have created 2 LUN’s and for each a ISCSI IQN that allows multiple sessions. From various machines I use Hyper-V manager to manage the Virtual Machines on there and start them when I need them. This is handy because I can centralize the backup and never need to worry about losing content. Also handy because my “workstations” laptops” can be clean and explode without a prob. There is a trick to allow Docker inside a Windows Virtual Machine (nested virtualization) so that you can further virtualize inside Windows virtual machines: