What is 'XAMPP'? Do I need it?
XAMPP is a (software) infrastructure - a backbone of the Net.
XAMPP is a software set put together to provide web server services. The name XAMPP comes from the first letter of the core packages. But X stands for one of popular computer operating systems: Linux, Mac OS, Window. So LAMPP, MAMPP, and WAMPP are each a tailored set of XAMPP for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
XAMPP set consists of
X-os (e.g. Linux: Debian, OpenSuse, Fedora, Ubuntu,...)
Apache (currently 2.2.17)
MySQL (currently 5.5.8)
PHP (c 5.3.5)
phpMyAdmin (c 3.3.9)
FileZilla FTP Server (c 0.9.37)
Tomcat (c 7.0.3 with mod_proxy_ajp as connector)
Do I need XMAPP?
If you are like me using a computer to read news and facts, to write documents, blogs and email, to manage photos and to keep some records. You don't know about XAMPP. You do not need to know about it. Though, you may be using it very often. When you write something on Gotoknow.org, you actually use XAMPP on an Gotoknow.org computer (also called a server). Your interactions with Gotoknow.org servers is managed by Apache and some utility routines. What you write is a record. The record gets stored in a database, managed by MySQL. If you ever have enough curiosity to look at a webpage's source (select 'view'.'page source' on the menu bar), you will see among HTML tags, some PHP language program code. PHP is a computer language used to process content of web pages. And phpMyAdmin is a utility software suite, written in PHP to help in management of servers' operations.
I have not used any of these packages directly for over 5 years. I don't need to know any of these to use any of these. We have technical support programmers on Gotoknow.org to make 'gadgets' (easy to do controls/forms/buttons/...) for us. We only need to give necessary data and to 'click' a button. The gadgets will then do everything that needs to be done for us. That why we have servers! ;-)
If your are a computer programmer, we would expect you to know how to 'manipulate' all these packages. So, they work well for some purposes. We expect you to make them work, fast, reliable and at low cost. You are the master of the servers. But remember the servers are there to serve people's needs. (Many programmers forget this and try to show their 'smartness' instead.)
Finally, XAMPP is 'free' (and open-source). So, everyone can use XAMPP for any purpose. Every can help to make XAMPP work better. Everyone can be XAMPP friends and friends of XAMPP friends.
Note. This post is written in English because I believe that Thai programmers would benefit greatly if they can master English and become 'international' in their work. Programming languages are more or less 'English' already. Extending applications to English would make them useable by more than 50% of the world. Making them 'international' are a much shorter step to take. Much shorter than a step from 'Thai' to 'English' ;-)
How do programmers learn English?
Programmers have learned to master a number of computer languages (for examples: C/C++, Java, PHP, Perl, Javascript, HTML/XML, SQL, Python, Ruby, Go, ...), and a number of 'styles' of how these languages can be used in applications.
All languages have rules (call 'grammar') on how to communicate with a computer. Like English, if we don't follow these rules, computers will not do as we ask. If our code is 'muddy' or 'sloppy', our computers will only work at one time and won't work at other time.
For a simple example: we say: result=work/2; (in C) hoping to 'divide' 'work' by '2' and place a half in 'result'. There are may rules that can make this a ridiculous expression. The 'type' of variables (or containers), the order of 'words', the exact use of symbols and the existence of variables and their content all have to meet 'grammar' before this instruction would work.
Many computer languages are more relaxed in the rules. It is easy to learn to write code in these languages (e.g. Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl). Other languages like C, C++, Java are quite strict.
Thai language is quite relaxed in rules and we have learned to interpret Thai expressions with high accuracy. But not following rules in languages like English, Pali or Sanskrit, makes poor communication.
When we say something in English, we also have to follow rules of English. Otherwise, what we say would not be understood. The 'type' of words, the order of words, the exact use of word forms, the existence in time of 'objects' and 'actions', ... have to meet 'grammar' before a sentence would make sense. Something like "X can't runing A !!!" would not work for human and computer alike.
Programmers spend time in practice: analyze a problem, make up solutions and choose one, write code in a language, test the code to see if it works and solves the problem in the expected way.
Some programmers jump from problems to coding (they call this 'quick fix'). Some use non-standard (smart) pieces of code. Writers and programmers share a common dream - to write an immortal piece of work.
But time and time again, bugs appear even when all rules seem obeyed. Context of use may be the cause of bugs. Applications built for certain use, often, do not work for another purpose.
Here we may not see that developing applications for Thai context may not work in 'English' context. And we must learn from the journey from Thai to English to apply again on the journey from English to 'international' (or the 'world').
We have to be competent in Thai first. Then we have to be competent in English. And we will learn to be competent on the world stage. ;-)
The journey will be long and difficult. But the reward will be great and satisfying.