PhpStorm - increase productivity (plugins and themes). Part 2

PhpStorm - increase productivity (keyboard shortcuts). Part 1

Plugins

PhpStorm has a rich selection of plugins that add support for various languages. For example, I use the Dart plugin for PhpStorm. Although this is not exactly the type of plug-in that I would like to talk about, they can nonetheless also increase your productivity. Plugins that add functions that you would not even think of coming across in the PHP IDE:

• The combination of the DynamicReturnType plugin with a good dependency injector , as Danack described , will allow you to make the correct IoC and use auto-completion and inspector code, as if you were dealing with classes directly.
• The key promoter plugin will show you the keyboard shortcuts for the mouse actions you perform. If you use actions that do not have keyboard shortcuts very often, he will suggest that you create these shortcuts.
• CSS-X-Fire allows you to edit CSS in Chrome Firebug Lite or Firebug Firefox, and when you switch to PhpStorm you will be asked to apply the changes made in the browser.
• As you know, PhpStorm is a project-based IDE, i.e. he cannot open and edit arbitrary files that are not related to the project, like a regular text editor. This can be inconvenient when you need to brainstorm something or just take a few notes for yourself, but don’t want to pollute the project folder. Scratch allows you to use temporary files in your projects precisely for these purposes.

Dark themes for comfortable work

Many people underestimate a good topic, rejecting it because it is not very good for their taste. This is wrong - a good topic, this is a good user experience - it increases readability and makes error notifications, keywords, and syntax constructs more noticeable. Specifically for dark themes, there are several advantages:

• When looking at a bright display, your eyes get tired faster, especially at night (relevant for many programmers). On dark displays, instead of being distracted by a bright screen and trying to see dark letters in the background, your eyes immediately turn to the bright part - the text, without paying any attention to the background at all.
• I subjectively argue that colors are easier to spot on a darker background. Naturally, this means that the colors should be quite contrasted with the background, albeit without frills.
• It is a known fact that the blue light of the displays suppresses the production of melatonin, which in turn causes sleep disturbance. If you find that at 4 in the morning, after intensive development, you cannot fall asleep, despite the feeling of completely annoying fatigue, try a darker topic and expose yourself to as little light as possible at night.

(Note: In fairness, it is worth noting that when working behind a single monitor, switching from a dark IDE theme to a browser, where often the background is light on the eyes, this is very annoying.)

Try themes with medium contrast. Avoid absolute values ​​- the background should not be pure black, and the text should not be pure white / red / green / orange. These sharp contrasts strain the eyes in the same way as white background and dark text. Instead, try pastel, smoky colors. Also, enlarging a font is usually a good idea if it is too small by default. Eyes are strained when reading too small letters, and if the distance to the monitor is not optimal, the headache will not take long. I would suggest one topic out of two - Darcula, the built-in theme, or Solarized .





Most discussions about design themes are subjective, but I urge you to go beyond the eye comfort zone for a day or two and try an alternative. You will be surprised how quickly you can adapt to a new style if you find one that is especially suited to you.