PHP Downloads:Which one should I choose? *Newbie*

[Pikachu]

Hi! I'm currently learning on my own on PHP(I have some basics on HTML). Anyway, I learnt that I need to download php from http://www.php.net/downloads.php

The first two downloads I saw was this:-
* PHP 5.0.4 (tar.bz2) [4,620Kb] - 03 Apr 2005
md5: fb1aac107870f897d26563a9cc5053c0
* PHP 5.0.4 (tar.gz) [5,702Kb] - 03 Apr 2005
md5: 8edf259bcfab4cfc890a4bb4e7c3649f

1. Can someone explain to me what is tar.bz2 and tar.gz?
2. How would I know if my PC doesn't support PHP? I'm using Windows XP...If it helps to let anyone know (I know this sounds silly, but I'm really really lost)
3. What's the usage of MySQL Database and Apache Server? MUST I have this together with PHP?

Many Thanks in advance.

[paradox814]

if you are running windows xp then you don't want either one of those, those are for li/unix servers

you want this one:
# PHP 5.0.4 zip package [7,488Kb] - 31 Mar 2005
md5: fff10991a8e6f3b36ee567eb236ae3f4

You OS will support it, as long as you have a webserver, ie apache, iis (requires xp professional), jakarta tomcat, etc...

you do not need MySQL to run PHP, but it is highly recommended (and heck it's free)

[Pikachu]

Thank you very much! :D

[alpha_foobar]

Hey if your a newbie on windows i'd use EasyPhp... its a good way to drop everything you need onto your windows box without worrying about it..

http://www.easyphp.org/

one draw back is its french.... but you can get around that.. if its a problem you can check out these other similar products (i think they are free.. but I haven't used them):

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

[Pikachu]

<?php echo "Hello World";?>

[paradox814]

that would be a good file to start with, it must end with a php extension

phtml and php3 have been deprecated so don't use them.

another good file to have for reference is this
[php]<?
phpinfo();
?>[/php]
then scroll down to where it says PHP Variables, add the $ sign to one of those and you can view all the system side variables, one item you will see is _SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]
so just adding the dollar sign, $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] you can view the users agent of whomever is viewing the page, there are other just take a look at see what you need

[alpha_foobar]

1. Do I write my codes like how I usually do for HTML (using notepad and then save as filename.html or filename.php) or is there other special programmes that I need to use for PHP?

Writing PHP is just the same as writing HTML... except it gets interpreted on the server side. So using Notepad is fine, but you will find that there are some pretty cool IDEs for PHP that can be helpful when your starting out.

There are also more powerfull text editors that you might be interested in trying. I have found Textpad and UltraEdit to be pretty good (and smart at editing lots of types of files), but these have restrictive licenses. And I am currently using Notepad++ which is a GPLed product available on sourceforge.

[fsn812]

My suggestion for an editor is Jedit, it has always worked well for me in Windows:

http://jedit.sourceforge.net/

Of course, if you are really feeling froggy (for an IDE that is), you may want to check out the Zend IDE suite:

http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-studio/

I believe the Standard Edition is $99 and Pro is $299.

Mmmmmm.. I love my vi.