Strange Symphonies The best way to predict the future is to invent it

WAMP

WAMP5

Windows
Apache
MySQL
PHP

Since I'm currently running on Windows, and I need to get my work down, I decided to go with an easy installation of a normal *AMP setup. Hearing all the popularity about one click install applications for windows, I though I'd give it a shot, and see what it can do exactly.

Installation is simple, and you have the option to either have it start when your machine boot's up or, start it up on your own, which is cool as it doesn't slow down your bootup process, and you can have it on only when you use it. Small things like this count.

In the notifcation area, there is now a small icon indicating the status of your servers. You can start/stop/restart your servers from there very easily, and access your httpd.conf, and php.ini . One thing that needs to be done is to access the mysql settings, as it initially installs the 4.1 on latin charset, preferably it would be set to utf8.

Finally I load into the normal http://localhost/ and check out what they preinstalled there. Small things like, phpinfo, phpmyadmin, and sqllitemanager. I quickly scan my phpinfo, and then go off to configure php.ini appropriate, by turning off magic_quotes_gpc, register_long_arrays, and etc. I noted how the other extensions are already available, and can be turned on at will, simply by uncommenting the line. Not to shabby, as I wouldn't have to look for extensions if I needed it. I restarted Apache, and went back to http://localhost/ and what do I see? Errors! ( On a side note, I program with ERRORS_ALL, and no short php tags ). Comon for such a simple page, errors. How could this possibly happen? What a shame and disgrace, but I let it slide.

Later I configure my httpd.conf and also my Windows hosts file, and now I'm ready. Overall, it was a really easy install, and it comes with the appropriate files for you to get started. Not bad, I'm quite impressed.