--- In flexcoders@yahoogroups.com, Jeffry Houser <j...@...> wrote: > > > It's easy to get things done / setup if you already know what you're > doing. But, lets compare apples to apples here. > > It seems logical to me that someone wanting to install CF would start > at Adobe.com , and from there could easily find and download the > installers. > I chose, Products ColdFusion, and download Free Trial. Login and I can > either download the developer edition or the trial edition; with various > options for language and/or OS. > > The CF install process is relatively painless across operating systems > and across web servers. I have no doubt Adobe (Macromedia / Allaire) > has devoted time to making that easy over the years. > > I doubt the download / install can be done in 10 minutes, but it is a > relatively painless process. > > On the other hand, if I go to PHP.com (oops, I mean PHP.net ) I click > the download link in the nav bar it gives me 6 options for Windows > Binaries, I have 6 options of 5.2.8 for Windows. I have no idea which > one is the I need; but none of them are labeled WAMP installer. > > What would make me, as a PHP newbie, go looking for an installer from a > 3rd party? What if I don't want to install Apache or MySQL?
I don't remember why, when I'd never had PHP installed on my machine, I knew that the place to start out with PHP was to install WAMP. It was probably one of those random facts I'd filed away when I didn't need to care for when I did. I suspect I'm not uncommon in knowing that that's where you go when you want to set up PHP painlessly on your machine. I think that it's a good habit to get into when you're a developer of any kind to note and possibly even bookmark information that might be of use later. An important difference between ColdFusion and php, as you rightly pointed out, is that php is installed on the server only--you don't need any special software to write php code, and you don't need any background knowledge other than what you need for any other web technoloty. I don't know much about ColdFusion, but I do know that the pages are compiled, so I wouldn't be able to just walk in and use CF without at least figuring out how to go from source code to compiled whatever. There are probably several other things like that that you need to learn in CF before you can actually become productive, so it's not just installation time, it's that whole other mass of "stuff" you need to know before you can use CF. Whereas, with PHP, if you have a basic knowledge of html, css, and database connectivity you're pretty much set with a WAMP installation and a link to the PHP docs. I guess it also depends on your motivation for wanting to install PHP. If you're wanting to enhance your skill set for potential employers, of course you want to be able to say that you have the skills that commonly "go along" with php--Apache and mySQL. I think most people would find php by itself of limited use.
