When you want to test a PHP code snippet quickly, it's handy to do it within your day-to-day environment. For me, this environment is Emacs. The geben package for Emacs provides an interface to the DBGp protocol, such as used by Derick Rethans's standard Xdebug extension for PHP. With the combination of geben and Xdebug, I can quickly and efficiently step through execution of local files, examining code flow and data values.

He includes a ten step process (step 11 is basically "use it") that walks you through the installation of the full stack - PHP, Xdebug and geben - and the configuration changes you'll need to make to get them all working together. Some basic usage instructions are included, but if you want more details on using geben, check out the project's site.