What's horrible about it? I just download it, unzip to Program Files, add the folder to my %PATH% and that's about it. I didn't find myself in a situation where I would need an Apache or other webserver, the built-in one is good enough. It also makes using different versions easy, no need to deal with Apache and CGI/FPM. You just use other PHP executable.
Re:The Serverless Revolution Has Stalled
by fetbaffe on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @11:17AM
(#24766394)
I find it easier to handle multiple PHP versions on Windows than on Linux. As you say just download zip,unpack somewhere copy php.ini-development to php.ini, and you can do this for every minor PHP-version.
Apache is almost as easy, download zip, unpack & configure apache conf to use your php.
MySQL is somewhat more complicated because you need to run an setup script after unpacking the zip.
sudo apt install nginx php mysql, point the www directory of nginx to something on your computer (/mnt/c/projects/xyz) and you've got a running setup. Or run Linux in general, that's what most people I've seen work on backends seem to do. You can run the same flavour of software that your deployment server runs so it'll save you time testing and comparing API changes or version incompatibilities as well.
I don't know any solution for macOS but you can probably get the necessary software via Brew if you're so inclined. Then run the built-in PHP web server (php -s) and you get the same effect.