Display Errors Option

[motionographer]

Hi all,

 

I'm a php newbie taking tutorials and they loaded php, apache and my sql separately. I use mamp. Several questions:

 

Is there a benefit to loading and configuring all three separately vs using mamp?

 

What does the option displaying errors on/off do? I didn't understand it completely?

 

How do I change display errors from off to on using mamp. Terminal is used throughout the tutorial and I'd rather not go there.

 

Thanks!

[falkencreative]

The benefit to doing thing separately is (potentially) that you'll have a better understanding of how to install/configure those programs, and possibly how to deal with issues. Alternately though, you may have trouble and then end up wasting time. If you want to get up and running quickly, use MAMP -- you'll be up and running within five minutes. Once you've worked with PHP a while and have a bit more confidence, maybe then go back and try installing everything by hand and learning how to do that process.

 

I would turn errors on if possible. Rather than showing a blank page in the browser, if you turn errors on, PHP will usually give you a hint as to what the problem is, often giving you a line number and error message to work with. This is probably something that you would want turned off if it is on a live server that visitors have access to, but it is really helpful to have errors on when doing development. Usually you turn errors on by editing you PHP.ini file and changing a line or two -- I'm sure you can Google for "turn errors on php.ini" will turn up a tutorial or two.

[motionographer]

Thanks!

 

The benefit to doing thing separately is (potentially) that you'll have a better understanding of how to install/configure those programs, and possibly how to deal with issues. Alternately though, you may have trouble and then end up wasting time. If you want to get up and running quickly, use MAMP -- you'll be up and running within five minutes. Once you've worked with PHP a while and have a bit more confidence, maybe then go back and try installing everything by hand and learning how to do that process.

 

I would turn errors on if possible. Rather than showing a blank page in the browser, if you turn errors on, PHP will usually give you a hint as to what the problem is, often giving you a line number and error message to work with. This is probably something that you would want turned off if it is on a live server that visitors have access to, but it is really helpful to have errors on when doing development. Usually you turn errors on by editing you PHP.ini file and changing a line or two -- I'm sure you can Google for "turn errors on php.ini" will turn up a tutorial or two.

[administrator]

Is there a benefit to loading and configuring all three separately vs using mamp?

 

What does the option displaying errors on/off do? I didn't understand it completely?

 

Hi,

 

1. Unless you plan on running your own servers, there is NO point in learning to install Apache and MySQL.

 

2. You should display errors as you learn and when you are building things. The error messages tell you what's going on and it is important to understand the error messages so that you can more easily find problems and fix them. In fact, when learning, once you have something working in PHP, break it and pay attention to the error message the thing you broke generates. This will help you to understand error messages much more quickly and ultimately, you will become a better and faster programmer.

 

Stefan