Is there a way to set up mod_rewrite in PhpED when debugging? I got it working fine in the TechPlatform, but can't get it to work in PhpED. I noticed for my setup PhpED debugger uses port 8080, so I created an extra virtual host entry in apache.conf for 8080 based on the example for port 80:

<VirtualHost *:8080>
#
# for mod_rewrite
#
RewriteEngine on
RewriteLog logs/rewrite.log
RewriteLogLevel 9

ErrorLog logs/port8080.log
CustomLog logs/common-access.log common
</VirtualHost>

It doesn't work and no error logs are created. Why doesn't it work?

No parts of NUSPHERE PHPED IDE can use apache.conf or httpd.conf. First one is unknown to me while the latter one is Apache configuration file which can be used by Apache only.
You may use Apache web server for your development in PHPED. See FAQ forum on how to set up project properties in this case.