I submitted a critique on the relative new article, PHP with Apache on Windows? Piece of Cake! using the comment system, but it seems that after two days or so my comment still has not been posted.

Honestly, does anyone vet the articles? Rajeev Ranjan Rakesh basically copied the PHP manual's instructions partially, and managed to make a mess out of it. For starters, the article is targeted "for PHP version 4.X", and this is in late November 2007, long after PHP4's end of life date was announced.

Other problems include:

Ambiguous: which file to download? One could infer by "Windows", "downloaded binary", "unzipped directory" and "PHP version 4.X" that it is the "PHP 4.4.7 zip package", but surely this could be clearer (not to mention that for PHP5, there is more than one possible binary).

Short tags: <?phpinfo() ?> is cute, but it should really be: <?php phpinfo() ?>

I mean, the PHP manual instructions are clearer and more complete. It even includes things like a suggestion on setting up php.ini.

    Never have I had a smooth installation of WAMP, it usually takes me a few edits in the conf file and php.ini file and some moving of some mysql libraries around to get things to work correctly.
    If you follow the instructions word for word, it still wont work

      If you follow the instructions word for word, it still wont work

      Which instructions?

        the distribution one, which is his as well

          the distribution one, which is his as well

          Eh, but you are expected to edit your web server configuration file (and php.ini, but that can be optional) when doing a manual installation. The only thing not "smooth" about your installation experience is the "moving of some mysql libraries around", but I find that unusual since I have never had such an experience myself.

            I use xampp. It's easy to install and comes bundled with FileZilla FTP, Mercury Mail (never use), Apache, MySQL, and PHP. In a matter of moments you're up and rocking. I'd look into it.

              I mean, I follow the instrucitons, edit all the confs exactly to how they are suppose to, I can get PHP on mysql easily enough, but MySQL does take extra digging aroudn to function. And often is the case that I have to copy .lib files from one directory to another to make it work on Win XP

                laserlight wrote:

                Eh, but you are expected to edit your web server configuration file

                But rulian was talking about wamp, and I've had grief with that (mismatched versions of some extension libraries).

                Personally, I don't trust these kitchen-sink bundles because they always make assumptions about what I want that aren't necessarily true. The last time I set up on Windows, I downloaded the .zip file from windows and extracted it to where I wanted PHP to run from, downloaded the Apache installer from Apache and ran it, edited httpd.conf to tell Apache about where PHP was, and started the server.

                No problems.

                Then I decided to add the DBMS; downloaded the PostgreSQL installer from their site, ran that. Edited php.ini to uncomment the postgresql extension and restarted Apache. Done.

                Which is why I never help out in the Installation forum: I don't have any experience with dealing with installation problems. I might as well have been using a Mac 😉

                  Every time I install on windows, I follow the directions I laid out in the Install Forum. I find them to be the most striaght-forward, and easy to follow (for me). If anyone remembers correctly, it started out as a PHP4 & PHP5 concurrently in Windows. Then after the EOL of php4, I switched it to just PHP5.

                  I used XAMP and WAMP at one time, but since then, never. I even used the portableWebAp apache installation. I still find it better to do a home-grown installation.

                  Even my home dev server I use is a "home-grown" build of PHP and Apache. It's not entirely built from source (no time to keep it up) but rather from individual packages from different RH sources.

                  Which is why I never help out in the Installation forum: I don't have any experience with dealing with installation problems. I might as well have been using a Mac

                  Mac's cause me the biggest trouble at work. My work develops on Macs, and I on Windows. So when they upload to the server (which runs Linux) the files have Mac line-endings and Linux won't interpret them correctly. So of 400 files, like 300 had "\r" as the line-endings instead of \n.... As much as I want one, sometimes they can create problems!!

                    bpat1434 wrote:

                    Mac's cause me the biggest trouble at work.

                    I was making an allusion to an Apple slogan. Hence the 😉

                      3 months later

                      I have tried WAMP but not XAMP but landed on WOS Portable just for my devel stuff. I currently use it at the office on XP Pro and at home on Vista Ultimate. Why? Simple, I am lazy and it worked the first time for me.

                        I used to have access to approving/deleting comments. I'll go try...

                          Nope, they cut my admin privileges for that part of things.

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