PHP 5 or PHP 4

[182x]

Hey guys, I am new to PHP and I was just wondering should I setup PHP 5 or PHP 4? I was also wondering if anyone has a guide about how to get PHP to work with apache?

Thanks for any advice.

[Piranha]

You should defenetley install PHP5. PHP4 is older, and won't be updated for much longer now. In addition to that PHP5 have a lot of stuff that PHP5 don't have.

About installing, look at this link, from there just click your way.

[182x]

Thanks for your reply is PHP 5 as widely supported as PHP 4? thanks again

[182x]

Thanks would you also recommend the WAMP package or downloading php, mysql, apache etc on their own?

[Piranha]

It all depends. I have used both approaches, and have gotten both to work. I think that if it is the first time you will use PHP you should use a package such as xampp. There are enough new things to think about and learn without having to worry to much about lots of settings in apache and php as well.

If you already know PHP you should set it up for yourself. It is a bit harder, but you will have complete control over everything. You should also set it up yourself if you will install it on the production server.

[182x]

bradgrafelman wrote:

I've always recommended downloading the packages separately and starting from the ground up. Even PHP.net mentions this is a wise approach as it gives you more understanding and "hands-on" experience of setting up and configuring each piece.

On top of that, there is plenty of documentation to "do it yourself," so why not? 🙂

I have upgraded to Windows Vista and tired to manually install each package but so far I have had no luck with getting it to work.

[Piranha]

Ah, Vista. Then I can't help you out, running XP myself.

[NogDog]

I installed the WAMP package on my Vista notebook and everything is running fine.

[NogDog]

I just posted the thing about WAMP more to indicate that it all can work on Vista, not recommending that you should or should not use any particular installation method. In my case, I just wanted to get everything up and running on my new PC as quickly as possible as a stand-alone development environment. For a learning experience, I would definitely recommend the manual method. And there's something to be said about manually controlling everything during an installation on a "live" server, though in actuality there is nothing that prevents you from modifying and tweaking an automated installation once it has been installed; but having done at least one manual installation, you'll have a better idea as to what configuration items you'll want to address.