Are we to take ongoing silence on the issue (in this thread and others) to mean that a Mac version is no longer planned? If so, please just let us know so that we can plan accordingly. As can be seen from the read count of this thread, a lot of people are interested in what's going on.

I'd like to understand what makes you thinking it's that speed limiting?
Some people have tried PhpED/Windows under Mac, then purchased and worked for almost year now. Their report states that the performance is the same, neither faster nor slower. It's because virtualization does not require to emulate anything. The feature itself comes with modern AMD and Intel CPUs where appropriate hardware features exist and they are effectively used. In other words, it's done at hardware level and works fast. What you really need is appropriate amount of memory. It's recommended to have 1.5 or 2GB.
If you have any problems with performance, please provide your report with numbers.

You misunderstand; sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, the actual execution speed is just fine. That's not the issue. The issues are:

1) As nice as Parallels and VMware Fusion are, and as much as they do to integrate the virtualized environment (especially if it's running Windows) into the Mac environment, the fact remains that's it's still a virtualized environment, and there are limits and annoyances related to that integration.

2) Running a program like this costs far more than running natively. First of all, you must purchase a copy of Windows (a full-price copy if you want to abide by MS's licensing terms - and for Vista, it must be Business Premium or Ultimate, again, based on licensing terms). Then, you must purchase the VM program. Then, you must ensure you have adequate memory to run a copy of Windows alongside Mac OS X and all your other software; most folks don't have this much memory. And don't forget the cost of the machine itself - just last year, people were still buying PowerPC machines, and there far more of them out there than Intel machines. Not everyone can afford to go out and buy a new machine to run a program - especially alongside the extra memory, the copy of Windows, the copy of the VM program, and, of course, the copy of PhpED itself. And in a work environment, an employer may not be willing to pick up the additional pieces necessary to run PhpED on existing Macs.

3) Many Mac users simply *don't want* to run Windows. They have a Mac for a reason. Related, many Mac users don't know enough about Windows to properly administer it and keep it running.

4) Finally, and this is by far the biggest reason, running PhpED inside Windows in a VM on a Mac doesn't take advantage of the many benefits of doing PHP development on a Mac. First, there's the full UNIX layer and all the things it brings with it, from openssh to rsync to ssh to svn, not to mention the power of the shell itself, that simply blows away what the pitiful DOS layer of Windows (or even cygwin) provides. Then there are the higher-level features, like AppleScript, and on and on. If it took advantage of the available facilities, PhpED/Mac could be incredibly powerful. And finally, there are the user-friendliness features, like the ability to rename or move files even while they're open (and have the software where they're open automatically recognize the change), and a windowing paradigm that lets you actually take full advantage of multiple monitors within each program instead of just across multiple programs, that are sorely missing in Windows.

PhpED is a great program, and it's even a little bit more great running virtualized on a Mac, but when I think about the potential of a real Mac version, I just salivate. I couldn't care less whether most Win-only software gets ported to the Mac, but for something as wonderful as PhpED, if it took advantage of the Mac, it would have the potential to become one of the best developer-targeted programs of all time. But even just a more straight-forward port to get started would bring many advantages, and certainly result in a lot more licenses being sold to Mac users than you could ever hope to sell by touting the VM route.

Just a quick reply - I agree with EVERYTHING Bob said in his post above. Not to mention that there are slight speed increases with running any software natively. But the main reasons are the ones he listed above. UNIX layer, No way for PowerPC users to use it, Costs involved, and also (one he did not mention) a TON of PHP development seems to come from Mac users. At least from everyone I have talked to. That's something to consider as well.

From all this talk though - I don't think there has been an admin weigh in on any development progress or plans for a Mac version?

So - where does NuSphere stand on this? Are we all just going to be a bunch of Mac Head Zend Users?

Indeed, when you go to open source conferences, it seems there are PowerBooks/MacBooks as far as the eye can see. The unique integration in OS X of a real UNIX with a great UI have made it very popular in non-MS development circles. And wasn't there just a study recently that found that Mac users are something like three or four times more likely to be involved in both using and generating "web 2.0" content as their Windows counterparts? In any case, the Mac is a very popular PHP development platform.



Just the statement from Dmitri back in January or February that they'd be starting pilot development on a Mac version in the next 2-2.5 months. I just want to know if they're still working on it and/or still planning to work on it; I understand that they won't be able to give a date yet. However, to know that it's coming sometime in the not-too-distant future means we can start making plans around it. OTOH, if the project's been killed, it'd be nice if NuSphere would just come out and say that, instead of just a series of posts that beat around the question.



There's also Komodo, from ActiveState, which looks extremely promising *and* is cross-platform. I wouldn't normally point to a competitive product on a vendor's own forum, but if NuSphere doesn't want to join Zend and ActiveState on the Mac, then they can't really be considered a competitor....

(Small disclaimer: I've only been able to download Komodo and run it briefly, since I was holding off for a good opportunity to install the server-side debugger, but from what they say on their site and from my brief experience, it looks very, very promising.)

Although Komodo does look very promising - my experience with it has not been so good. It does not come close to the ease of use of Zend Studio. I really don't think any heavy duty PHP IDE comes close to Zend other than NuSphere. That is probably why everyone is wanting a port of this software over to the Mac.

Mac PHP development tools have some good sides and some bad. Nothing seems to the complete solution though. I was really hoping NuSpehere would be able to be the one to fill in the gap.

Basically, you have the following contenders:

- Zend Studio (the big player - but is based on Java. Not really a Mac native development effort here. Things are still clunky in some areas of the IDE)
- Komodo (again, based on Java. Not Mac native code. Seems to run slower. But tries to be more zoned in on perl and other development languages. PHP seemed to be an afterthought.)
- BBEdit (great quick editor but lacks some of the nice features (code completion, etc.) that Zend and others have)
- Coda (The new kid on the block. Quickly becoming my editor of choice. Still lacks some features of the bigger players though. Once they get feature complete, they are going to be the one to look out for.)
- Dreamweaver (too much. Not fast enough. The Mac version always seems to lag behind the Windows version.)
- SubThaEdit, PHPEdit, Smultron (I grouped all of these together because I feel like they all missed the mark. They are all good programs but could be so much better)

I am sure I missed a few but these are the main contenders. And they just don't stack up (in my opinion) to NuSphere. The only one that compares is probably Zend. And Zend needs a competitor!

Another Java effort to watch is Eclipse, which is getting more and more PHP-friendly. Having just partnered with Zend on the debugging front, it could get interesting in the near future.

But yes, PhpED is the best, which is why I want it.

PHPEd is the only editor that actually works for me. Zend, Coda, etc. they either lack features or ease of use.

I've worked with PHPEd for quite some time now. Allthough some UI elements could be better, the work proces is fine.

My n1 complaint about running PHPEd inside Parallels is the speed. Yes - you are right; when you only run PHPEd in coherence mode, the speed is fine.... but! I also run Debian inside another parallels instance, and Photoshop if it let's me. This is undoable, even on a MacBook Pro 2.4g!

I compare the usage of parallels to running a slow Java app in Windows XP. Somehow it doesn't feel "right". (remember, you need to load a complete OS to run a single program)

I just hope the guys at Nusphere will create a native Mac OS PHPEd version. They'll have my money if they do

Indeed, my Amex is burning a whole in my pocket for a Mac-native, Mac-savvy version of PhpED.

Now, where did I put my drool rag....?

Such a beast was talked about earlier; can we just have news, good or bad, about whether that will still happen? I'm less concerned with time line here than simply knowing whether it will happen.

Hmm, well, I just stumbled upon this:

http://vmblog.com/archive/2007/09/04/nusphere-brings-its-php-development-solutions-to-mac-and-linux-customers-through-parallels-partner-program.aspx

That doesn't seem to bode well for a real Mac version... and yet, still no further announcements here. How to interpret all this? NuSphere?

Of course, it also seems like bad news for users of the mostly neglected Linux version.

What a load on nonsense. NuSphere have released a so called Mac version. It's just phpEd running Parallels and Windows. How they dare they call this a Mac version, I have no idea. I am really disapointed.

I'm sorry if I sound angry, but I've love phpEd, it is by far the best editor, but as a Mac user now, I cant use the dam programme.

Just got the newsletter. Great to hear they improved/ optimized the collaboration with Parallels.

I still stick with my opinion though.

No matter how great windows apps 'integrate' within the Mac UI, they remain Windows apps.

PhpEd is great in it's functionality but! Compare the user experience of PhpEd with for instance Coda (a Mac OS native php editor)

PhpEd is an IDE, Coda is much more like an editor. When looking at funcitonality Coda is no match to PhpEd.

But when you compare the UI (and more important UI behavior) Coda is far superior to PhpEd.