But for specialized php development though you should also give eclipse a testdrive. Together with the following plugins it makes a great ide for php:
- PHPEclipse: this is not the Zend-plugin for eclipse!
- csseditor: old, but still works like a charm
- JSEclipse: It’s publisher interakt was bought by adobe, but atm this plugin is still free, you only need to register at adobe.

Google those names and you will find the plugins. Apart from the css-editor you can can download them through the update-mechanism in eclipse, just add ‘update site’ to the search terms.

It takes a bit of time to get used to the eclipse-way (and some of it’s quirks), but if you get into it, you’re able to use a top-notch IDE-platform that supports various programming environments (a.o. C/C++, java, php). And like jEdit it’s also cross-platform.

At the moment I use eclipse as my main IDE for all my projects and keep jEdit on the side as a simple, but powerful text-editor.

I tried Zend Studio too, but I found it to be too specialized and generally unintuitive. The cost-factor also plays a role.

As for debugging features, although I am able to and have done in other languages, I never used it for php. Placing var_dump() and echo’s at key places, while turning up errorlevels and activating debugmodes works fast and efficient for me.

Anyway, in the end it all boils down to personal preferences, but just thought I’d mention the eclipse-alternative too.