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@NogDogNov 21.2018 — #I use Visual Studio Code (a.k.a. VS Code) as my free editor of choice now. There are many PHP-related plug-ins you can use with it, for syntax-checking, etc. I probably don't really use all of these extensions I've installed, but just to give you an idea, here are my currently installed PHP* extensions:
[upl-image-preview url=https://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/assets/files/2018-11-21/1542779126-52614-screen-shot-2018-11-21-at-124437-am.png]
You can run wampserver or XAMPP on a PC to get your own instance of Apache, PHP, and MySQL running, so that you can test everything locally on your PC. These are also free. I used to use wampserver on Win98 and XP machines, so hopefully current versions still work, but I don't know for sure -- or older versions may be available?
@PeterPan_321Nov 21.2018 — #@NogDog#1598100 Thanks! I'll give that a try! I hope it works for me because besides being cumbersome, quick and dirty uploading of PHP files to my host opens the possibility that someone able to discover the file could be monkeying with it. Finding some way to do basic testing at home would be a welcome endeavor. And I have enough extra windows boxes around to let one machine be my web server if I could set one up. Then with a free DNS service, things like this current project involving my home security cameras would be accessible from a local machine.@PeterPan_321Nov 21.2018 — #Well one down... According to Sourceforge, wampserver is not compatible with Win=XP Sr3. Seems odd just that service pack, But, XAMPP doesn't seem to mention any such restrictions on that same site! Downloaded it, but will have to wait for a day when I'll have no interrupions to get started! :-) @PeterPan_321Nov 28.2018 — #It looks like XAMPP will run on just about anything :-), so this should be a workable solution for me. Does anyone happen to know of a discussion board the authors maintain where they might actually respond to inquiries? It might be a better place to ask all the typical newcomer questions or read FAQs and articles. But its apparent that the company (or authors) do not respond to any user's questions on any of their social media groups. @NogDogNov 28.2018 — #Don't know off-hand, but odds are good that a reasonably crafted google search string will end up with some useful stackoverflow results where someone has already had the same problem or asked the same question. ?
[upl-image-preview url=https://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/assets/files/2018-11-28/1543437003-717514-l7gueie3jd99ka0xgbry.jpeg] @PeterPan_321Nov 29.2018 — #@NogDog#1598365 Thanks. And just for anyone else, there *IS* an English only XXAMP for windows forum area on apachefriends.org.
https://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewforum.php?f=16
As for Stack Overflow, I personally prefer less formal forums like this one and have lost patience with Stack Overflow. IMHO that board has become a very unfriendly place, too heavily policed. Its good for simple one liner questions sometimes, but quite often any question that would require a little research results in multiple "google is your friend" posts, and any question with any complexity gets down-voted, soon resulting in posting privileges lost. The proof of that comes by searching for previous answers to a question on Stack Overflow via Google, where you'll often find more scolding to the OP than actual answers.
As I've been using the internet and coding on some level since the first shell accounts were available to the public (and local Bulletin Boards before that), I'm used to a more friendly and welcoming atmosphere, where programmers and coders of all languages offered genuine help, or recommended good reference books.@NogDogNov 29.2018 — #@PeterPan_321#1598407
Oh, I never actually ask or answer questions on stackoverflow, but I often find answers there for issues I'm having, many times by just googling for a copy/paste of an error message I get. ?@PeterPan_321Nov 30.2018 — #By the way, My MS Visual Studio is very old (2008, I think v.9.0), and I used it exclusively for C++ Windows development. Do you think there is any chance any older version of those PHP plug-ins would work with it?
Suggestions for making PHP development easier, with limited equipment.
I’m probably among very few web coders whose main machines are all windows boxes, and many pretty old (Win XP still on many!). For basic pages, HTML, HTML5, CSS, etc, my browsers all provide plenty of built in debugging. But Often I’m working on a little PHP project and have no way to compile or run the code. (When I say little, I mean mostly mail forms, or little projects like the one to display uploaded camera files I recently mentioned.)
So when I do this work I’ll use a PHP aware editor such as the old Homesite or Notepad++ to compose my code, FTP it up to my hosting service, call it through a browser, download the error log, read it, re-edit, rinse and repeat. It works, but it would be nice if i could compile and run my code at home and not have to keep shuffling files back and fourth to my web host space.
So far I’ve tried the PHP version of eclipse, and something called netbeans. Both were terrible in one simple aspect: The system requirements stated don’t give you a clue that without setting up a web server , and getting a PHP interpreter from some magical place, your installation won’t be any better than Notepad++. Netbeans is particularly useless. Half the pages on their website, and ALL links to forum communities, all use https sites that have NOT been configured properly for https security. So, none them will load in any browser I have.
So that’s the end of my tale of woe. If other PHP coders have any suggestions for a COMPLETE home development package, I’m all ears. And if its not “free”, I don’t mind paying a reasonable price. As long as there is a 30 day trial where they can prove to me it WORKS! I don’t need a database, postgress, or SQL right now. I’ll cross that bridge later. I just want to be able to test my PHP code on my local machine.
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@NogDogNov 21.2018 — #I use Visual Studio Code (a.k.a. VS Code) as my free editor of choice now. There are many PHP-related plug-ins you can use with it, for syntax-checking, etc. I probably don't really use all of these extensions I've installed, but just to give you an idea, here are my currently installed PHP* extensions:You can run wampserver or XAMPP on a PC to get your own instance of Apache, PHP, and MySQL running, so that you can test everything locally on your PC. These are also free. I used to use wampserver on Win98 and XP machines, so hopefully current versions still work, but I don't know for sure -- or older versions may be available?
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@PeterPan_321Nov 21.2018 — #0
@PeterPan_321Nov 21.2018 — #0
@PeterPan_321Nov 28.2018 — #0
@NogDogNov 28.2018 — #Don't know off-hand, but odds are good that a reasonably crafted google search string will end up with some useful stackoverflow results where someone has already had the same problem or asked the same question. ? 0
@PeterPan_321Nov 29.2018 — #As for Stack Overflow, I personally prefer less formal forums like this one and have lost patience with Stack Overflow. IMHO that board has become a very unfriendly place, too heavily policed. Its good for simple one liner questions sometimes, but quite often any question that would require a little research results in multiple "google is your friend" posts, and any question with any complexity gets down-voted, soon resulting in posting privileges lost. The proof of that comes by searching for previous answers to a question on Stack Overflow via Google, where you'll often find more scolding to the OP than actual answers.
As I've been using the internet and coding on some level since the first shell accounts were available to the public (and local Bulletin Boards before that), I'm used to a more friendly and welcoming atmosphere, where programmers and coders of all languages offered genuine help, or recommended good reference books.
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@NogDogNov 29.2018 — #Oh, I never actually ask or answer questions on stackoverflow, but I often find answers there for issues I'm having, many times by just googling for a copy/paste of an error message I get. ?
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@PeterPan_321Nov 30.2018 — #