HTML 4's fieldset, legend, and label tags took longer to find their way into my toolbox than I'd care to admit. In fact, it took Dreamweaver's use of them for form design a few years back to bring them to my attention. Since then I've combined several useful tips from experts to create my own standard form layout style sheet. I'll share my thoughts behind my form style sheet, basic usage examples, and the HTML and CSS source for you to download and try.

4/2/08 - Added php.ini settings to use the proper MySQL socket at /tmp/mysql.sock.

3/23/08 - After going through these instructions on a new Leopard system, I made a few minor updates. The steps should now work for Leopard as well as Tiger.

While options abound, MacPorts may be the easiest option to configure a local web development environment on your Mac. I'll mention a few of the other options and then share the steps I've used to install Apache 2 and PHP 5 with MacPorts.

I remember how excited I was when Mac OS X was initially released. Finally I had real development tools available on my platform of choice. I could run a web server with middleware to develop database-driven web sites on my laptop. The only problem was that although having Unix file management skills, at the time, I had absolutley no experience compiling the required Unix software from source.

Like other web geeks, I'm often asked by friends and acquaintances, "Are you on __________?" <-- insert the "current" social network here

My reply is usually a groggy "Huh?" So no, I don't have a Facebook or MySpace account; and yes, I'm probably missing out on something, and I'm okay with that for now.

7/18/09 - Having trouble starting MySQL on system startup? Rob Wilkerson shows how he gets around the issue.

4/2/08 - UPDATED - Replaced symlink to MySQL socket with proper MySQL configuration file settings. Thanks Doug!

10/20/07 - UPDATED - Added full path to aliases, thanks Joel!

10/7/07 - UPDATED - Clarified +server option and executable names, thanks Thom!

I decided to move my MySQL server installation from the server I installed from MySQL.com to macports. Why? I believe MacPorts will simplify future upgrades. I'd also like to keep my LAMP installs in the same location. If you haven't already, install and configure MacPorts. Here are the steps I'll go over:

• Intall MySQL 5
• Create the initial MySQL databases
• Options for starting MySQL
• Confirm that MySQL is running
• Set Basic MySQL Security