XDebug stable released

Good news! XDebug has released a stable version that is compatible with PHP 8.3. Because of that, we started beta testing and expect to release PHsPeed version 3.3 in January. The PDO drivers for SQLServer are not yet available, so if you are on SQL Server, you must wait until Microsoft releases them. But until then, you will still have the benefits of the improvements.

We have gotten some questions about road mapping and the numbering of releases. I'm most happy to answer these.

Regarding the road map for future releases, we have several plans.

1. Support for HiDPI monitors.

We have made some corrections that fix some issues when you run on 2K monitors. However, on 4K monitors, the icons become too small and several other problems will occur. It is always possible to use a lower resolution, but to switch between them is not very handy. The main problem is that the tool we use to develop our IDE is not HiDPI aware for all components, especially those of 3rd parties. We depend on those but are actively working to help fix them. We will not release it tomorrow, but we are slowly integrating fixes that are downwards compatible. For one, we must change the icon sets used, as we require different resolutions. As many icons are used, it is quite a time-consuming task to find and implement suitable icons.

2. Create your own components.

In future releases, it will become possible for you to write your own components, and we have plans to open a marketplace for them. We have already started to implement the tools in the IDE, but as above, it will be introduced step-by-step. Currently, the scripting language is implemented, and you can open component forms, to look at properties and events.

3. Bootstrap 5.

As we use many open-source (MIT) components, we depend on the availability of those components regarding compatibility with Bootstrap 5. We will adopt Bootstrap 5 it is already there, but not fully supported yet. There is no rush, as there are many sites that even work fine under Bootstrap 3. But we try to keep up with all developments in that regard.

4. New components

We release new components on a regular base. We changed the lanes component to provide better support for writing Kanban-like dashboards. But we will also implement new components that will make developing dashboards easier, like gauges for example.

Of course, we are always eager to find out your requirements to improve PHsPeed. So don't hesitate to contact us if you have ideas, remarks, or any other reason why you need contact.

Finally something about our version numbering.

You are presented with two different numbers when you install a new version. The first one is the version number or the PHsPeed IDE. For instance, 3.3. A build number like B1, B10, etc follows that number. These are the official release numbers. If the build version increases, there are mostly bug fixes or minor improvements. But when you are requested to install a newer release a simple number is presented, i.e. 350. And it is very well possible that your previous number was 342. To understand this principle I need to explain how we maintain our development.

In development, we are constantly working on a new release. When we think it is ready for testing, we deploy it in a different environment to test the installation procedure. We also try how the product runs under different versions of Windows, databases, etc. Every time we deploy the application, regardless of the reason, the release number increases. So, usually, there is a gap between the release numbers as we always test in a separate environment. After all, you only see the official releases.

Happy coding!