PHP editing environment

Hi, i am new to the list and i am quite impressed with whats going on over here. Anyway, just have a small question. Have been coding php for a while now but i still havent found a stable (easy and not time consuming) way of working in PHP, i mean, i use homesite5 to code and when i want to test the php i upload the scripts and test them on the site. This process is a bit time consuming, so i installed php on my winXP, but even like that i can only test small things using php master editor. Anyone know how i can make my work more efficient? Like install MySQL and PHP and get everything working normally when i preview the code in internet explorer, that would be perfect, is it possible? How do you guys and girls work with php, what editors and/or tools you use? Thanks. Pag