i'm trying to learn php, and i don't have a xepher site yet, and i don't think geocities lets you do php. when i tried, nothing showed up. is there somewhere else i can go to just test stuff out and experiment for free?
install an apache server to your computer and install php. Then you simply run the server and write the scripts on your computer.
Installing apache on your own windows computer isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, but it is doable. Many nifty howtos can be found on google.
As for learning PHP, it's not too difficult if you already know HTML and some basic programming concepts. If you're just worried about having to have a main page here that's PHP (for the newsbox stuff) than don't. It's trivially simple to add a piece of PHP to a regular web page. Anything that's not PHP just gets treated as regular HTML.
You can create HTML coding on Microsoft Frontpage right, so can you also do PHP with your HTML and still get the preveiw?
I wrote a quick installer for Windows Apache and MySQL 4
It will install the software, and services, and works on 98 SE, 2000, and XP. I just need to find a place to put it up.
It has PHP built into it, so all you'd need to do is some minor config changes to the server and you're set.
If you have Mac OS X Apache is already conveniently installed.
Why not try EasyPHP software
what's that? like a special program that runs PHP in a virtual state on your computer?
No, it's not a virtual anything. You can very well just run the server on your system.