Can I use PHP?

Droog13

Hi,

I am new to PHP and want to learn it (as well as MySQL.) However I am not sure if I will be able to.

I am trying to learn at school and find that many of the basic codes I type in do not work (even basic echo commands). I have not installed anything on the computer and am not really able to install anything on them. Is it still possible to learn PHP without installing anything, I thought it would be to just test out basic scripts (saving as .php's and .html's).

I do have access to a apache webserver my friend setup for me at my house (on a machine running linux (redhat)).

With this is it at all possible to run php scripts? Why would some of the php fail for me? (Running a different version of php)?

Thanks,
Droog

maxpup979

you betcha. Check out this article. It explains about PHP on a thumb drive. I have also used XAMPP on a thumb drive. Its really simple to set up--
As for your apache install --in order to get PHP to work on that, you will have to install (or have it installed) PHP in order to test the scripts out.

Droog13

What article?

PHP is installed on my linux box (i think mysql is too), but the problem with that is to test any script wouldnt i have to upload it? I couldnt just test on the local?

From the sounds of it, that article would be a good solution, but I dont see a link.

Thanks for the help though

Gh0sT

Hi Droog,

why don't you try Googling for one of these free php editors. In combination with php installed, you can practise all you want..

PHP Designer 2005 3.0.6

Freeware
Windows

VIM 6.1

Freeware
Windows
Unix
Linux

HTML-Kit 292

Freeware
Windows

Anjuta 1.0.1

Freeware
Unix
Linux

Quanta Plus 3.2.1

Freeware
Linux

Kate 2.2

Freeware
Linux

................... ................... list cut ................... ...................

Hmmm, I think that's enough.. 😉

Greets,
Gh0sT

Droog13

I cant install PHP on my local machine.

If it would be possible to run off a cd instead of a thumb drive that would be much better as well.

Weedpacket

Why can't you install PHP?

You don't need to install a web server to use PHP as a programming language (though you do if you want to do web programming). If you've got a Linux box then there's a good chance that not only is Apache installed on it already, but possibly even running (try going to http://localhost/ and see). (But you don't even know if you've got MySQL installed....)

And .... moving this to a more appropriate forum.

Droog13

Im using a computer at my school where I dont have rights to install and am not able to install any other way (ive looked into it).

I would like to avoid using my home box as it would mean that I must upload to anything via ftp before I can test it and with my schools connection that would be a hassle.

I googled 'php on thumb drive' and came up with a pretty good solution, it would mean i would need to get a thumb drive though. I would rather just burn to a cd and use that instead. Is that at all possible? What would I use and how would I go about that?

Thanks,
Droog

maxpup979

well that gets a bit iffy--you would need a bootable CD, and most labs frown on loading those things up. BUt there is probably a live CD project somewhere that has apache/PHP/mySQL all ready to go. I still think the thumb drive is the best option, and since you can get a big enough one for around $10.......

Droog13

Well im positive I cant access BIOS so that it will boot of a cd. I cant just stick the files that would normally go onto a thumb on a cd?

gufmn

Droog13 wrote:
I would like to avoid using my home box as it would mean that I must upload to anything via ftp before I can test it and with my schools connection that would be a hassle.

Why can't you just install apache/php/mysql and run tests from your own machine at home?

Droog13

If it really matters, b/c I am taking a web design class although i already know how to make a web page so I can just do whatever I want to, and I want to learn php.

planetsim

Droog13 wrote:
I would like to avoid using my home box as it would mean that I must upload to anything via ftp before I can test it and with my schools connection that would be a hassle.

Why do you need to ftp to your home box ? And what does the school connection have to do with home and ftp'ing to it?

Without using some sort of thumb drive or cd drive (I dont recall of a CD that can actually do it however I have seen a while back a thumb drive capable one, forgotten the URL however.

If you want to try it at school why not ask them to install it, theres bound to be a webserver there already since your doing web design so it shouldnt be too much hassle (you'd think anyway)

I do have access to a apache webserver my friend setup for me at my house (on a machine running linux (redhat)).

Must have missed this line initially, anyway as apache is already installed and your using redhat depending on which version there is an RPM for PHP and MySQL. If your not sure why not ask your friend to help you there or ask if he installed it, if not ask him if he can help you do so.

Droog13

I thought I should post a update and solution to my problem;

I got portablewebap (http://portablewebap.com/) and it does exactly what I needed to do. v1.2 didnt work correctly for me, but the new v2.0 works great. My biggest problem was not having access to the c drive, but this allowed me to get around that. If anyone else is in my shoes I would reccomend this program.