A interactive PHP Shell
=======================
The more I work with other languages like python and ruby I like their way how they
work on problems. While PHP is very forgiving on errors, it is weak on the debugging
side. It was missing a simple to use interactive shell for years. Python and Ruby have
their ipython and iruby shell which give you a direct way to interact with the objects.
No need to write a script and execute it afterwards.
Starting the Shell
------------------
Starting with PHP_Shell 0.2.1 starting the shell is done by calling the shell-wrappers:
$ php-shell.sh
or on Windows
> php-shell.bat
Write your own wrapper
----------------------
Sometimes you want to write your own shell where you provide your own defaults, colours and
error-handlers.
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
require "php-shell-cmd.php";
?>
and execute it with:
$ php -q php-shell.php
Inline Help
-----------
PHP-Shell - Version 0.2.0, with readline() support
(c) 2006, Jan Kneschke <jan@kneschke.de>
released under the terms of the PHP License 2.0
>> use '?' to open the inline help
>> ?
"inline help for the PHP-shell
>> ?
print this help
>> ? <topic>
get the doccomment for a class, method, property or function
>> p <var>
execute a verbose print (if implemented)
>> quit
leave shell
"
>> ? PHP_Shell
Shell Colours
-------------
The shell supports colours to seperate Exceptions from normal output of your
functions. To enable the colours you can to set:
>> :set background=dark
By default the colour-schemes 'plain' (the default), 'light' and 'dark' are
defined.
You can also register your own colour schemes:
>> $__shell->registerColourScheme( 'custom', array(
.. "default" => PHP_SHELL::C_LIGHT_RED, /* colour of the prompt */
.. "value" => PHP_SHELL::C_BLACK, /* colour of a return value */
.. "exception" => PHP_SHELL::C_RED, /* colour of a exception */
.. ))
Alternatives
------------
- http://david.acz.org/phpa/
- http://www.hping.org/phpinteractive/
- the embedded interactive php-shell: $ php -a