mark-fletcher.co.uk

Friday 28th March

A Journey of discover: Setting Up MySQL on Mac OS X

As I mentioned in yesterday's log, over this last week and spurred on by the excellent article by Macromedia's Minh Huynh. I have been attempting to get MySQL to work with Mac OS X. Now before go into this, I want you to realize that I am no stranger to configuring databases. In the past I have set-up Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and MySQL on Windows, so at the very start of this undertaking I was under the impression that because this was a Macintosh installation loading MySQL and configuring PHP with Apache would be a 'stroll in the park'. Okay, so I know that Mac OS X has a Unix foundation, but this is still a Macintosh right!

Well getting Apache to recognize PHP was fairly straight forward. The problems started when I then moved onto MySQL. The MySQL package I downloaded (My SQL installer package - mysql-3.23.53.pkg) installed without a hitch, then using the Terminal window I managed to create a simple database. Impressed with my technical prowess I exited the MySQL monitor and shut the Mac down. Later the next day I fired it up again and to my horror found that try as I might I could not start the MySQL Daemon to load. A Unix daemon is a program that runs continuously its purpose is to handles request that a computer system expects to receive. For example HTTP has daemon that waits for requests to come from the rest of the web.

Having read about the MySQL start up page available at http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/mysql/ I tried installing that, thinking that this would solve all my problems. In fact (and this is in no way any reflection on Marc Liyange's software but for me this just made matters lot worse).

My next port of call was to get in touch with my good friend George Fox at Macromedia Inc, who very kindly put my in touch directly with Minh Huynh. Whilst I was waiting for Minh's to get in touch I started to trawl the MySQL Newsgroups where I came across a post stating that the MySQL package that I had installed didn't work with Mac OS X 10.2. Now again I cannot substantiate this but I decide that I would cut my losses, re-install Mac OS X (10.2) and start again from scratch. This time however I downloaded the latest version (4.0 - released this week) of the MySQL package from MySQL.com. (One of the great advantages of using the latest version is that you don't need to run the script mysql_install_db, which is used to generate a new MySQL privilege table). From this point on things started to go much smoother and thanks to the some minor glitches that Minh managed to iron out I now have a working copy of PHP and MySQL running and as you read this I'm probably in the process of constructing the fictitious ruplaying.com site I use in my VTC Dreamwever MX training CD series.

And now if you would excuse me, I'm off to root in my loft to find my old and dated Unix books. If I don't post again in a week or so, you'll know I've got stuck up there.

Virtual Training Company
You might also be interested to learn that VTC also has two Unix courses that are available at the VTC Online University these cover: You can view the first three chapters of these and any courses free of charge. Subscribe to the VTC Online University today for as little as $25.00 per month and get access to over 27,00 QuickTime movie tutorials

Thursday 27th March

Part 1 of the Netscape devedge EPSN.com CSS Driven Layout interview

Read part 1 of the Eric Meyer interview with Associated Art Director Mike Davidson of ESPN.com. This first installment discusses the benefits of adopting a CSS driven layout, browser testing and the ethics of upgrade requirements. If you are serious about Web Design then this is one you cannot afford to miss!

Other News

Advanced Query Wizard Extension. Those kind people at Advanced Extensions.com have very kindly set me a complimentary copy of their latest extension: Advanced Query Wizard for Dreamweaver MX. I'll be producing a complete review some time in the next couple of weeks, but for now what I will say is that it looks truly awesome!

MySQL and Mac OS X: A Journey of discovery. If you are wondering why I've been quite over the last week or so, it is because I have been configuring PHP and MySQL on Mac OS X (10.2.4), but more on that tomorrow.

Tuesday 18th March

Create image headlines and decorative type with CSS

Want to learn how to use images to create headlines and decorative type whilst preserving accessbillity? Read Douglas Bowman's article Use Background-Image to Replace Text and make the web beautiful again.

Monday 17th March

Macromedia.com Progress report

Macromedia continues to make changes to the new macromedia.com. and releases the first progress report.

Monday 3rd March

Bug Swatting

So far the only bug I have managed to find on this site is the notorious Flash of Unstyled Content. This is critter only occurs in Internet Explorer and results in the content appearing without any CSS styles. This is something to do with the way IE loads an imported stylesheet. Adding a linked stylesheet in the head of the document before the @import directive stamps gets ride of this tiresome creepy-crawly.

Friday 28th Feb

New VTC PHP tutorials for Macromedia DEVNET

In April Macromedia will feature a number of my VTC video tutorials which cover developing PHP applications with Dreamweaver MX. Check out Upcoming PHP and ASP.NET Content at Macromedia DEVNET for more details. You can view the existing video tutorials on MySQL and PHP from the VTC title Dreamweaver MX - Web Applications by subscribing to the VTC Online University

Special Feature: Thursday 26th Feb

Pink birthday cake with three candlesHappy Birthday Lucy Grace!
Today is my daughter's second birthday. I can hardly believe that two years have gone by, it still seems like yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital. Lucy was born two years ago at 3-25pm GMT and weighed 10 lbs 12 oz's.

Wednesday 26th Feb

Reload time again

Finally managed to get the inner pages working in all web browsers and have now tested the top navigation bar to destruction in Netscape 7, Opera 7, Mozilla 1.2.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0. The navigation bar has been created using the list elements UL and LI and is based on the ideas first proffered by Mark Newhouse in the A List Apart article CSS Design: Taming Lists Mark also gives back at Real World Style Hat tip to Mark Newhouse for sharing the knowledge.

Tuesday 25th Feb

Redesign for W3C CSS Home Page

The W3C have redesigned their CSS Home page with CSS standards. If you have Opera 7 or Netscape 7 you can change the page design by selecting from one of the user styles as shown in the screenshot below.
Choosing an alternative user style in Netscape 7

Monday 24th Feb

Site Development

I'm currently developing the inner pages for this site, hence the reason why there haven't been any journal entries over the last couple of weeks. One thing that did catch my eye recently was the new look to the BBC's news site. The redesign and technical enhancements mean the content loads much quicker and the pages are 30% wider. You can learn more about the redesign at BBC News Online gets a new look »

Monday 10th Feb

Macromedia Announces Freehand MX

Freehand MX Workspace

Today sees the launch of the latest version of Freehand. Freehand MX is powerful multi-publishing design solution that enables you to design rich graphics for the Internet, print and of course all your Flash MX projects. This new version offers incredible integration with Fireworks MX and Flash MX and provides all the tools you need to move from concept to design to production to final deployment.

Freehand MX Top New Features

Friday 31st Jan

Zeldman.com - redesign in progress

The Maestro is at it again! Zeldman.com redesign in real time. Watch and learn whilst Mr Zeldman crafts the latest zeldman.com design.

Wednesday 29th Jan

HTML Wireframes and Prototyping

Excellent article from Boxes and Arrows by Julie Stanford on using HTML to create Wireframes and Prototypes

Tuesday 28th Jan

Opera 7 for Windows is released

Opera Software unleashes Opera 7 for Windows

Monday 27th Jan

VTC releases Dreamweaver MX - Web Applications Training CD

This is the second title in a series of courses from the Virtual Training Company for Dreamweaver MX. In this course will teach you how to develop web applications, construct a database, create database queries using SQL (Structure Query Language) and how to connect to a database using IIS (Internet Information Server), PWS (Personal Web Server) and the Macromedia ColdFusion MX Server using both a PC and Macintosh.  [details]

Friday 24th Jan

mark-fletcher.co.uk goes live

Today sees the launch of my personal website, well one page really, though we all have to start somewhere! There is still much to do here, although the sites mark-up and css validate I have yet to cater for Netscape 4.0 visitors and ran out of time to add the IE 5.0 for Windows box model hack I'm also working on another web site, which will feature tutorials and articles for some of the products from the Macromedia Studio MX family. One thing I can promise it is going to be a very exciting year!

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