Web development using the Mac

Today I was able to successfully run two web projects I need to run on my Mac: Drupal and Ruby on Rails. I previously tried to install and configure these the long way, but I had a hard time doing it.

So I took the recommended shortcuts, which I'll discuss here.


I had two goals in mind for this. First, to recreate the Windows setup I was using to run a web content management system (Drupal). Second, I wanted to set up Ruby on Rails to continue studying it more seriously.

At first, I thought both tasks would be a breeze, since Mac shipped with the required environments: Apache, MySQL and Ruby. But it wasn't as easy as "just add water!" because most of the existing tutorials and upgrades have not yet taken into consideration the improvements for Intel Macs.

So I had to postpone this while I attended to other matters, promising myself I'd do some research on the side and then return to my two goals when time came. Well, I had some time and I finally decided to take shortcuts.

For my AMP setup, I downloaded the ever-reliable Xampp. The installation was smooth, smoother in fact compared to when I first installed Xampp on my old Windows machine (for some reason, my XP by default had a registry setting that caused Apache to go haywire).

For Ruby on Rails, I downloaded Locomotive. I have tested both shortcuts and they have both worked!

My next steps now are (1) to configure Drupal in my Xampp setup and (2) to start going through the Ruby on Rails tutorials.

The Mac has earned a reputation for being the best tool for multimedia developers. After all, it provides a lot of free tools like GarageBand for making music and iPhoto and iDVD for making movies and distributing them.

But this strength has also led to a myth that needs to be broken. People still think that the Mac is good only for multimedia creators. Not true anymore!

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Links:
Xampp download: http://www.apachefriends.org
Locomotive download: http://locomotive.raaum.org/