Installation and Configuration Issues
Windows vs. Unix
Development vs. Production Environments
Elizabeth Fulgum’s Tutorial: Installing and Configuring
The WikiPedia Comparison of WAMPs at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WAMPsXAMPP at http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
WAMP5 at
http://www.en.wampserver.com/phpdev Download and Installation Bundles from Firepages: http://www.firepages.com.au/
Apache2Triad: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93507
php.ini is the supreme deity of the PHP world. There are at least three critical things you should consider setting:
- display_errors = on
Setting this to “on” lets you see important debugging errors while you’re learning PHP. - error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
Perversely, you’ll want NOTICEs off to avoid excessive error messages; take it for granted that while you’re learning you’ll be violating some coding standards. - register_globals = On
This is a cheat. You can use it as training wheels early on, but it’s much better for you to learn to use superglobals. As early as possible, turn this back off.
You may also want to see if the short_open_tag setting is 1 (on).
Get XAMPP from the Instructor’s Files.
Install it into C:\XAMPP.
Check the settings in your PHP.INI file(s).