Newbie getting started

hello to one and all

I am seeking advice as to the intial set up of my machine (pc). the pc currently operates windows 98. would I be better setting up under windows or is the better route to partion a disk and run redhat. Any advice is most welcome. It is my intention to run Perl, PHP, MySQl.

Regards
TheAncientMariner

I run php and mysql on a Windows 95 system without too much difficulty. When I started out I set up a Linux system. I know some people absolutely love Linux but I prefer my windows set up. It's easy to work with my familar graphics programs etc. . Also it's much better for testing web pages. Most people who visit your sites will be using Imternet Explorer or Netscape on a Windows system. The version of Navigator for Linux seemed very inreliable and as far as I'm aware there is no Internet Explorer for Linux (doesn't seem very likely ).
If you get a host that allows you telnet access - I strongly advise you to do so you will have good but slow access to (probably) a Linux machine for finalising your scripts/webpages anyway.


John

JohnB: How do you handle mail() in PHP? I'm trying to learn PHP and mySQL for a shopping cart project I have and I'm using the tutorial found on DEVSHED "Building and E-Commerce Site". In part 2, the files included with the tutorial have a password emailer program, but I'm unable to use them. I get the following error:
Warning: Unknown error in /Inetpub/wwwroot/mymarket/lib/mymarket.php on line 141

How do I fix this? I'm not using apache, which seems to be what everyone else is using, I'm using IIS5 under W2K Server. My responsibilities are going to be the PHP scripts. I've had to learn how to install and configure mySQL and PHP in order to test my scripts, so I'd rather not have to figure out Apache as well. Is there an easy way to get mail() working with IIS5?

Thanks
Statik

I'm sorry I use an Apache server an my windows system. Try posting this in the php forum someone might be able to help you - that is a very busy forum.
I was really referring to using a windows environment for development only.


John

I am setting Apache up on a win98 box for the first time. It is running ok but I have a question about security.

Do we have access to a system like htaccess??? while running on a win98 box???

also a lot of stuff seems to be for unix/linux, Do you know of any good sites for apache,php,mysql, for windows sites???

Thanks in advance

Late

Hi,

I set up my mysql/php system with the help of the tutorials at webmonkey:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/21/index2a.html

They discuss both Linux and Windows set ups and tell you where to get the binaries. (at least they did when I set mine up. It may have changed since but at a quick glance it loooks the same.)

As I said I only use this system for development. I find it very convenient from the point of view of being able to access windows based programs for graphics etc. It is also handy to be able to view pages through a browser on a windows system.

John

statik,

Under Winbloz you need to change the configuration in php.ini. You should comment out the line for sendmail=... and give a value to SMTP=mail.yourmailserver.com

That way PHP can send any mail to your SMTP server since there isn't a sendmail program in Win.

CryingWolf,

You can control http access with .htaccess using Apache under Win. Apache works pretty much the same as do PHP and MySQL. There are some PHP functions that won't work under Win because they are actually calling Unix functions, but other than that and some specific configurations (such as the SMTP mentioned above) everything should work exactly the same (except of course Win being MUCH less stable).

Heh heh...Winbloz...
That information about configuring php.ini for SMTP and not sendmail is good stuff. I've been wondering that myself.