LAMP development on OSX

aubrey — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:00:46 +0000

I recently acquired myself a 13″ Macbook Pro, one of those new shiny unibody ones, which I now use as my primary work and freelance machine. I used to run Ubuntu on my laptop to ease freelance web development that I do with Zend Framework and WordPress etc. Mostly PHP type work.

With the Mac comes a whole host of new issues to get things going, where the more hardcore Mac fundi will install things like DarwinPorts or Fink or some such. Previously I had fink installed, and never really found that I absolutely *required* it, so this time around I’m not installing anything like DarwinPorts of Fink.

However, the underlying components to do LAMP-type development are all open-source and free, and the nice folks at MAMP put together a stellar package to ease the pain. The MAMP installer gives you everything you need, to get local web development going on a Mac. It includes Apache 2.x, Mysql 5.x, PHP 4 and PHP 5, Postfix for mail delivery, and if you’re OK with paying $$$ for MAMP Pro, you’ll get virtual hosts, PHPMyadmin, Dynamic DNS support and a whole host more features. MAMP Pro is available for a 14-day trial as well.

In summary, MAMP is a one-click-to-download one-stop app for everything you need to run a fully functional local web development setup, for all values where “P=PHP”. Perl and Python support inside MAMP is not there, for those you’ll likely need to do some hacking around, but I’m sure it’s possible. Oh, there’s one thing MAMP doesn’t give you, and that’s naturally an editing environment for your projects. IDEs for [L|W|M]AMP development is a personal choice, some people prefer gvim, others use bbedit, or textmate, or Eclipse PDT. I still use the Zend IDE, as it has nice built-in support for Zend Framework, and I’ve been testing out the beta version of the 7.0.x version, and so far it looks very good.

May Geekdinner

aubrey — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:31:42 +0000

So it’s another other-month, and it’s time for another GeekDinner.
I try to make the GeekDinners when I can, sometimes it’s just too far, and other times it’s too expensive. I count cents you see.
But, this month is different.
This month we’re off the Mel’s Village Kitchen (no site, but see a pic here)for the Geekdinner, on the 28th. Nice, it’s after pay day (My current employer pays salaries *before* the last day of the month, like *normal* people…), and Mel’s is in Rondebosch. And on the menu, for a mere R115, is a typical 3-course meal (Soup, bread, curry buffet, baked choc pudding), and we’ll likely get wine sponsored by one of our previous sponsors. (There’s talk of Perdeberg being involved, more about that later). Previous sponsors included Stormhoek and GetWine and Blank. They all have some awesome wine (I’m not ‘spurt on wine though, but what I’ve had tasted nice, haha), and you can even own a vine in Stormhoek’s vineyard too if you have some cash to help them out.

Anyway, the Geekdinners have always been fun. Lots of interaction with old colleagues (mostly from IOL) and fellow geeks, funny-as-hell Slideshow Karaoke, and some (usually) interesting and (usually) informative talks. It’s very informal, and there’s a small group of people that usually take charge and run the thing, keeping tabs on the time for talks and introducing the next speaker, or generally just talking crap while some poor sod tries to get Windows and the projector to talk nice.

So, I’ll be there, very, very likely. Not talking about anything (I don’t think I have much to say yet…), just enjoying the interactions and the wine. Maybe, the wine.

Oh, and if you use/like/develop for WordPress, you can swing past the 3rd Cape Town WordPress Meetup at the Bandwidth Barn in town, right before coming through to the dinner. I use and like and (can) develop for WordPress, but don’t think I’ll make the meetup. I might have to make a plan though. *ponders*

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LAMP development on OSX

May Geekdinner