Emacs + php-mode in windows

My development machine is having Ubuntu and I love to use Emacs than any other editor. Recently I need to work on windows.  I wrote a blog post about how to make Linux like environment in windows. I wanted to use Emacs in windows. To install Emacs in windows I followed the instructions as it is from http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/math/alee/emacs/emacs.html

I want to work on PHP, so I need a php-mode for Emacs, otherwise it will be very difficult. I tried a lot to install php-mode in windows as specified at https://prajwalaa.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/using-emacs-to-edit-php-files/ but I was getting “error: `c-lang-defconst’ must be used in a file” error message. Finally after searching for long time I figured out how to enable php-mode.

I downloaded php-mode and extracted and placed in my C:\emacs directory. And added following lines in my C:\emacs\.emacs.d\init.el file


(add-to-list 'load-path "C:\emacs\php-mode")
;;(load 'php-mode)
(autoload 'php-mode "php-mode" "Major mode for editing php code." t)
(defun clean-php-mode ()
(interactive)
(php-mode)
(setq c-basic-offset 2) ; 2 tabs indenting
(setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq fill-column 78)
(c-set-offset 'case-label '+)
(c-set-offset 'arglist-close 'c-lineup-arglist-operators))
(c-set-offset 'arglist-intro '+) ; for FAPI arrays and DBTNG
(c-set-offset 'arglist-cont-nonempty 'c-lineup-math) ; for DBTNG fields and values
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.php$" . php-mode))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.inc$" . php-mode))


After adding above lines and save. I restarted emacs. Then Php-mode is working fine. Hope this will help others to install Emacs and enable php-mode.

Linux like development environment in Windows

I am a fan of Linux based OS. I love Ubuntu a lot. In fact I started my programming in Redhat. So from the beginning I am comfortable using Linux than Windows. The only reason I use windows is to check IE browser compatability.

Recently I attended Drupal Sprint India 2009. I want to attend the sprint, so I need one Laptop to go there and work. My company provided me Laptop with Windows. So I need to work on drupal core issues in windows. Hmm it looks very hard for me to work in Windows. I want to have following things in my Windows machine.

1. Cygwin to get the linux like terminal, so that I can see paths with forward slash.
2. Xampp Lite to get Apache, Mysql, PHP.
3. cvs, I am going to work on drupal core so I need it
4. I should able to create patches, apply patches.
5. I want to use Drupal Drush module, which provides some command line utilities
6. Emacs. I am more comfortable with this editor. It is very hard to work with other editors once we are comfortable with Emacs

First I installed the things I know like Cygwin, Xampp Lite.

Installing Emacs

I Installed Emacs by following instructions at http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/math/ALee/emacs/emacs.html .

Installing UnxUtils

To be able create patches and apply patches I installed unxutils from http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/ . With this unxutils I got most of the Linux commands. The commands like ls, mkdir, wget, diff, patch, tar, zip etc… are working. I am very happy after installing unixutils.
Installing UnxUtils is nothing but setting the path variable in Windows. I extracted the unixutils directory in C folder and Add C:\unixutils\usr\local\wbin path to the Path variable. In Windows XP we can set the Path variable by going to control panel > System > Advanced > Environment Variables. Select the Path and click Edit and add your path to the existing path.

Installing Drush

There is a documentation about installing Drush in Windows http://drupal.org/node/594744 . This document explain Drush installation by using GnuWin32. But I already installed UnxUtils so I don’t require GnuWin32. So first 3 steps in the http://drupal.org/node/594744 can be ignored. I extracted drush in C folder. As specified in the step 4 of http://drupal.org/node/594744 I edited drush.bat with the path of php.exe and path of drush.php. I added following statement in drush.bat file
@E:\xampplite\php\php.exe C:\drush\drush.php %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

Because I used xampplite to install php, php is there at path E:\xampplite\php\php.exe.Now I executed drush command from the windows terminal by specifying -r and -l attributes.
After that I got an idea why can’t I keep this php, drush paths also in path so that I can directly drush.bat file as it is. Yes I added php, drush, mysql paths in Windows Path variable. The everything works file.

Installing cvs

I downloaded TortoiseCVS from http://www.tortoisecvs.org/download.shtml. This is a exe file, I can simple double click and execute.

That’s it, Now I installed all the things necessary to work on drupal with a linux like environment. Now I am happy to work on windows.