XAMPP - Good or Bad?

[Rustyd]

Hi,

EXTREME PHP/MySQL Newbie here!

I have been tasked with learning PHP/MySQL. I found this site which supposedly loads Apache, PHP, MySQL and MySQLadmin:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Can anyone tell me if this is a good route to take? If not, what is the best way to go about it? I want to run as Localhost for my Dev environment.

Any suggestions, or should I go the XAMPP route?

System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
3.2G Dual Core w/ 2046MB RAM

Thanks,
Rustyd

[ramie]

XAMPP is very good, takes the headache out of setting up mysql, apache and php on windows, its even got a tasty perl addon and you get phpMyAdmin thrown in ;)

[999]

Also its php version switcher can be handy at times.

[nobody]

Highly Recommended

[hl]

Good :thumb:

[Rustyd]

First,
Thanks for all the valuable opinions - I can now open a localhost connection and all appears to be running smoothly!


<insert sincere gratutude blub here!>

I do have 1 more question regarding the XAMPP control panel.

I have it opened and and can start and stop the svcs just fine as well as open the Apache Admin... part, but I can not figure out how to get the MySQL 'Admin...' to work? I have attached a screenshot.
If I am in the wrong forum or should start a new thread, by all means let me know.

Thanks,
Rustyd

[ramie]

Thats the MySql server admin your looking at you dont really need to go near that to admin the databases, type

http://localhost/phpmyadmin

to access phpmyadmin for your mysql databases

[Rustyd]

Perfect! Thanks ramie!