Those of you interested in web development might want to build your own web pages on your home computer before going to a web hosting service to get on the Internet.

Although you can always do a file open in your browser, and load a page on your computer ending with an .html extension, once you start putting a series of pages together and want some additional functionality like a web scripting language, like php, or a database, like MySQL, you will want to have your own web server on your computer.

A web server is a program that takes in URL requests sent by a browser, and responds to those requests, by sending back the requested web page to the browser that requested it.  For example, you type in a URL web address, www.geekgumbo.com, in your browser and press go, you are connected to the geekgumbo web server on the Internet, which returns this page to your browser.  Pretty neat, and what makes the web go round.

Installing a web server on your computer means you can make URL browser requests to your own web server, usually called “localhost”.  To do this, you type in the “localhost” URL in your browser address field along with the name of the pages you are building on your computer, for example, “http://localhost/yourwebpage”  The browser sends the URL request to your web server, “localhost”, and “localhost” returns the requested web page to your browser window just like a web server on the Internet.  Using your own web server means the web pages you build will execute just as if you are actually on the Internet.  This is the way most web developers build web sites before publishing them on the Internet.

There are several web server applications running the Internet.  The two biggest are Apache, and Microsoft IIS.  Apache is the web server for over 100 Million web sites at present, and, by far, is the leading web server with 66% of the business sites.  We will focus on Apache, mostly because its what we know, and secondly, because all the open source, free, technologies work well with it.

Apache usually comes with PHP and MySQL in what is normally called a LAMP stack.  LAMP standing for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.  Don’t let the Linux scare you away it runs on Windows as well.

There are currently two LAMP stacks available for free, XAMPP and WAMP.
XAMMP runs on the Windows, MacOS, Solaris, and Linux operating system.  WAMP only runs on Windows.  WAMP stands for, you guessed it, Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP.

Right now, XAMMP is the leading home pc server, but if your running Windows, either XP or Vista, we prefer WAMP.  Having installed and used both servers at one time or another, we feel the WAMP interface is much easier to use, and configure then XAMPP.  XAMMP requires some configuring after you install it that you don’t have to worry about with WAMP.

Download either, and give it a try. They both come with initial screens that let you know their installed properly.  Put the web pages your building in the htdocs directory under XAMPP, or in the WWW directory under the WAMP directory and walla… your off and running as a future web developer.

Has anyone running Microsoft Vista experienced starting an application on your computer, that normally starts quickly, and having to wait a minute or more for the application to start.  Sometimes you’ll get the spinning circle wait icon and sometimes you won’t.   Or all of a sudden your computer suddenly slows down when you haven’t done anything that you normally wouldn’t do.  Or your internet connection suddenly get real slow when it was running fast a second ago.

The immediate thought is I have spyware, a virus, or trojan running on my computer, and wonder how I got it.

Well, I have a surprise for you.  It may be Microsoft’s error reporting causing the problem.  The theory of error reporting is  if enough people have a problem, and you report it to Microsoft, then Microsoft may come up with a solution, and fix your problem.

Microsoft has been doing error reporting for a long time.  I’m not sure when they started having user’s computers, attached to the Internet, automatically send messages back to Microsoft.   It’s been a long time.  When Vista first came out, it was so bad, I figured, yea, let’s help get this operating system as good as XP.  But enough all ready, Microsoft has given up, and is rushing out Windows 7.  And I have to say, I have never had a message back from Microsoft fixing my problem, or even a message about a current problem.  That’s never in all these years.  So what gives.  I do wonder if they are not just tracking the software on your computer.

If you would like to see what get’’s reported to Microsoft in Vista, get ready for a surprise.   Go to Start>Control Panel>System and Maintenance>Problem Reports and Solutions>View Problem History.  It looks to me like every application you run gets reported at one time or another.  Each one of those reports may cause one of  the slow down problems we described at the start of this post.

My advice is to turn it off, forget about it, and stop those annoying slow downs.  To turn it off go to  Start>Control Panel>System and Maintenance>Problem Reports and Solutions>Change Settings> click “Ask me to check if a problem occurs.  Your not done yet. Click in the same window right below that “Advanced Settings>For my Programs, problem report is “OFF” .”   Then click “Change Settings.”  Windows will protest, and  remind you to turn it back on occassionally, but you don’t need it, and you  can safely ignore their prompts.  Your computer will run a lot better and a lot quicker.

We were talking the other day amongst ourselves about one of our favorite topics.  What’s your favorite editor for web development?  When all of a sudden a common pet peeve reared its ugly head, we had to write about it, mainly, in hopes that one of those unknown editor developers might someday in the near future rectify the situation.

I’ve looked at, and tested, a lot of editors,  my specific needs mostly being web development.  Let me name a few,  in no particular order, that I have actually downloaded and spent time looking over:  NetBeans, Dreamweaver, Komodo, Zend, Eclipse, Aptana, HTML-Kit, PS-Pad, Notepad++, Kompozer,  Textpad, TopStyle, and  InType.   I am currently using Aptana, and HTML-Kit for most of my work.  These are both free for the download.

Now to the Pet Peeve, I’ve talked to a lot of developers and everyone I have talked to, tells me that they like to work with their editor having a dark background with consistent color syntax highlighting across various code languages in lighter colors.  Everyone that wants to do that, have a dark background and light syntax highlights,  has to configure each and every one of these editors by hand, for each language, and for each selector or tag.  What a pain!   Some of these color changes can take hours.   The absolute most frustrating editor to change colors, bar none, is Eclipse, it’s awful.   I’ve tried to get Eclipse the way I wanted it several times, and each time, I have gotten so frustrated, I’ve switched editors.

Every version of these editors that is released has a white background and usually a nicely set up color syntax highlighting adjusted properly for a white background.  Why give you any color choices if it such a pain to go away from a white background?  In fact, what I’m asking for, is a properly configured dark background choice, like one option reverses everything to a dark background with properly set up color highlighting for the dark background.  That doesn’t seem to much to ask, but apparently the editor developers find it just as hard a task as us everyday developers.

The only editor that came with that option was a very good, but incomplete and still in, what seems like forever, development, InType.   If this editor ever gets done, this could be the TextMate of the Windows world.

So what about it.  Can we get a proper dark background layout, or are we just going to be iritated for the next 10 years, until someone gets it right.

Microsoft is scrambling to get out its replacement operating system for Vista to bring up its revenues.  The replacement, Windows 7,  will try to get corporate America and the government weaned away from XP.  Vista has largely failed to meet expectations.  It is slower than XP with many annoying features, like UAC, User Account Control.  That’s not to say Windows 7  will be much better.  It will have UAC only with four choices instead of two.

In an effort to get Windows 7 out by Q3 2009, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, announced that a new version of Office will NOT be released with Windows 7.  This is a switch from previous releases where both were released at the same time to enhance both revenue streams, and signals a separation of operating sytem and Office development.

This separation is real, and led to several interesting developments.   You will not have to have Windows 7  to run Office 14.  It will still be supported on XP.   Office 14 will have a new format that will support XML-based file format Open Office XML (ODF). Microsoft has been fighting against this to try to keep to its own Open Document Format (OOXML).  It looks like it will give in on this one.

And in a big twist, Stephen Elop, Microsoft Business Division Chief  announced that Office 14 may offer a FREE ad supported version.  In other words, you can get it for free, if your willing to look at ads while you work. Elop said it was to fight piracy, but we think that the complete $400 plus package of Office from Microsoft is under a lot of pressure from OpenOffice.org.  Sales must be hurting given OpenOffice.org is free.   Elops sees it has a chance to get upgrade revenues later on.   I guess, if the ads are annoying enough, people will spring for the $200-$500 to upgrade, but we don’t think so.  Hopefully, the ads will replace the ribbon.

Office 14, the new release, now will not be released until 2010.   In the meantime, we thought we’d tease you with some advanced shots of the new Office 14.   These are compliments of the Office 14 Alpha release and was leaked by the Russian web site, Wzor.  We know, we know, the images are small, if you like an even closer look try here.