I believe that the reason the PHP features don't work via FTP is that the PHP is installed on the local machine. UltraEdit is passing the commands to the PHP instance on the local system, capturing the results, and displaying in the output window.
I've found that XML Lint works the same way... you have to have an actual copy of the file saved locally for it to work. I suppose they could add a feature to allow UE to grab a copy of the edit buffer, store it locally, then run the external app against it... but that's my best answer as to why UE and UES act this way.
yes. I found out same.
my solution: phpeclipse. bad because i like ultraedit but otherwise eclipse is an IDE and has many more features. but the ftp plugin of eclipse works like that. you have to 'import' the files, and can 'export' them later on via ftp again. and it also remembers, which files of a solution are changed and pushes just these files up to the server, and not the whole solution. not really comfortable @ll, but worx and is maybe the best solution.
for searching and replacing, converting, xml and typoscript i will continue using uestudio 'cause it's that mighty there!