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The ancient web development setup: PHP and MySQL with XAMPP
Are you ready to dive into the world of web development? Great! Setting up your development environment is one of the first hurdles you’ll face. Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up PHP and MySQL using XAMPP, a popular tool that makes the process a breeze.
Introduction
Before we jump into the setup, let’s briefly cover what PHP and MySQL are and why they’re important:
- PHP is a server-side scripting language used for creating dynamic web pages.
- MySQL is a popular database system that stores and manages data for web applications.
Together, they form the backbone of many websites and web applications. But to start developing with PHP and MySQL, you need a local environment on your computer. That’s where XAMPP comes in.
Understanding XAMPP
XAMPP is a free, open-source package that bundles together several tools you need for web development:
- X — Cross-platform (works on Windows, macOS, and Linux)
- A — Apache (the web server)
- M — MySQL (the database)
- P — PHP (the programming language)
- P — Perl (another…
