Writing PHP

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Aérolithe
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Writing PHP

Post by Aérolithe »

First of all, I would like to say that I am new to the forums and PHP. I'm reading Programming PHP right now.

My question is, is there a way I can test my PHP code without going throgh the trouble of installing Apache and PHP on my PC? I've heard of a programm called Zend, I am not sure if it does that or if its just a debugger, but its a bit out of my price range. If you know any free software that would help me out with this and save me the time of uploading everything, let me know. If not, do you think its worth installing Apache and PHP?
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mydimension
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Post by mydimension »

Zend is the engine that the PHP processor uses to process php script. as to testing php scripts, you do need a parser setup. the ideal solution for this is to setup a development server on your PC. you could also install php by itself and run it from the command line (i.e.: php script.php).
Aérolithe
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Post by Aérolithe »

Thanks for the reply. Im not sure how to run it from the command line but it'd be easier if I could just open the file and have it work by itself, so I will just install Apache.
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volka
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Post by volka »

installing apache/php isn't that difficult. If you follow the instructions by the letter you should be through in less than half an hour.
Next step would be the right editor.
Take a look at viewtopic.php?t=3495

The more complex your scripts become the more you will apreciate the features of a debugger. So also take a look at http://www.php.net/manual/en/debugger.php
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twigletmac
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Post by twigletmac »

There's also packages like phpdev which installs everything you need and from what I've heard (never tried it myself) seems to work quite well at getting things running easily.

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Aérolithe
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Post by Aérolithe »

I just installed PHPDev4 and everything is working fine. Thanks for that, saved me a ton of time.
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