How do you debug plugins?

I am pretty new to plugin authoring and was having a hard time debuging.

I used lots of echo and it is sloppy and ugly.

I am sure there is a better way to do this, maybe an IDE with a debugger that I can run the entire site in including the plugin?

Go into wp-config.php and change define('WP_DEBUG', false); to define('WP_DEBUG', true);. Also, install Andrew Nacin’s Log Deprecated Notices plugin.