How can one effectively set up manual debugging and profiling without a pre-built IDE while using Xdebug in PHP development?

To effectively set up manual debugging and profiling without a pre-built IDE while using Xdebug in PHP development, you can use functions like xdebug_start_trace() for profiling and xdebug_break() for debugging. By adding these functions strategically in your code, you can control where the debugger stops and where profiling begins. This allows you to analyze the performance of specific sections of your code and step through it to identify and fix any issues.

// Start profiling
xdebug_start_trace('/path/to/trace_file');

// Add a breakpoint for debugging
xdebug_break();

// Your PHP code here

// Stop profiling
xdebug_stop_trace();