I like using OS X's built-in packages where possible, but unfortunately Apple is way behind with their PHP package, having it locked on 5.3.15. In the past I've seen people use tools like Mamp, or Xampp to provide this for them, but frankly I'm not a big fan of these tools.

Homebrew provides a solution. Homebrew is OS X missing package manager, and it's an absolute great tool to work with. Getting started with it is a bit harder, as there's a few bigger dependencies you need, such as an up-to-date XCode installation. Once you've installed homebrew, it's a matter of running the following commands:

1. brew tap homebrew/dupes
2. brew tap josegonzalez/homebrew-php
3. brew install php54 --with-mysql
…

There has been a lot of chatter the past week about Apple replacing MySQL with Postgres in the new OSX Lion Server [U.S. | England | New Zealand ]. Most of it seems to tie things back to Oracle's new stewardship over the MySQL project, a lot of that stemming from what I would say is FUD from the EnterpriseDB folks, regarding doom and gloom about the way Oracle might handle the project in the future. Not that the FUD is entirely unwarrented; While Oracle has done a pretty decent job with MySQL so far, looking at what Oracle has done to projects like Open Solaris certainly would make one queasy. And …

In this latest release I’ve added a basic MySQL connection pool to the benchmarking script which improves the method in which connections to MySQL are handled and reused. In addition, there have been some optimizations made to the thread handler functions for better debug reporting. Download the latest release now and see how your MySQL server performs against the rest of the community! Download here: download page.

We had a very successful weekend of Planet.mysql users submitting their database statistics so I’ve pushed some code into a new release today so that everyone can benefit from some new features. The biggest change is to the threading logic. Previously the benchmarking script was serializing MySQL operations and only making use of a secondary thread (not the invoking thread) to query the database. Now you have the option of running with “–threads=x” to make use of your multi-core server. A good example of this improvement was on my Macbook Pro; before the threading change it was inserting ~700/sec, after the code change I tried –threads=4 and saw an improvement to ~900/sec. Rather significant.

Download the new script now and see how your server compares to the ones in the …

This is a simple matter with a simple solution that might help someone save time and confusion. Emacs wasn’t coloring my comments correctly so I went ahead and had it change them to red-italic. If you are having similar issues you can drop the following into your home directory’s .emacs file. Enjoy. Keep in mind that if you are using emacs in a terminal session as opposed to the X-server gui then you will not see the italics.


(global-font-lock-mode 1)
(custom-set-variables
'(gud-gdb-command-name "gdb --annotate=1")
'(large-file-warning-threshold nil))
(custom-set-faces
'(font-lock-comment-face ((((class color) (background light)) (:foreground "red" :slant italic)))))


So you're a small startup company, ready to go live with your product, which you intend to distribute under an Open Source License. Congratulations, you made a wise decision! Your developers have been hacking away frantically, getting the code in good shape for the initial launch. Now it's time to look into what else needs to be built and setup, so you're ready to welcome the first members of your new community and to ensure they are coming back!

Keep the following saying in mind, which especially holds true in the Open Source world: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression!". While the most important thing is of course to have a compelling and useful product, this blog post is an attempt to highlight some other aspects about community building and providing the adequate infrastructure. This insight is based on my own experiences and my …

Some notes from my recent installation of MySQL 5.4.2-beta on a PPC G5 box running OSX 10.5.8. Hopefully these notes will save someone a bit of time when they begin the “I want to make my mac a development box” process. I’m not going to cover installing/configuring Apache and PHP since the web is full of those articles already.  So, first things first,  I downloaded the pkg file  – not the tarball – from the MySQL downloads site and installed the following files in the following order:

1. mysql-5.4.2-beta-osx10.5-powerpc-64bit.pkg
2. MySQLStartupItem.pkg
3. MySQL.prefPane

CNF File Settings

Here are some interesting settings that you may want to be aware of with 5.4 and OSX

• Do not set innodb_flush_method=fdatasync – it’s not a valid option, and the default after install is actually blank.
• Do not set “nice = …

This is a bit of a side-step from directly MySQL related information .. but I found myself installing Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro today (which I use for pretty much everything) and every-time I do I have to try and remember all the applications I use. And I thought I would share them as I've found it useful you can pick up on things other people use. So here it is!

I have marked the applications which cost money with a green dollar symbol ($) and hyperlinked all the project names for convenience.

• 
  
• iLife 2009 - iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie $
  
• Built-in Mac Applications - Mail, Safari, Terminal
  
• iWork 2009 - Office Suite - Pages, Numbers, Keynote $
  
• …

Background Knowledge

With the use of Samba we are able to share files through a local network and make it appear as if the files are on the Mac OS X locally. The instructions below will step you through step by step on how to access files from the Mac OS X to a Windows XP/Vista™ system through the network.

NOTE: Instructions to unblock network traffic through a software/hardware firewall are not provided. Refer to your software/network manual or support web site for details.

NOTE: These instructions will not allow for sharing via the Internet.

Solution

Setting up a file share in Windows XP

1. Open Windows Explorer/My Computer (press Windows Key+E) or go to the Windows Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer.
2. Browse to a folder you wish to share and right mouse click on it and left mouse click on “Properties”. …

It's seems that Mac OS X has become the OS of choice for many people that wanted to get away from Windows or got too frustrated with Linux on the desktop. MySQL has been ported to OS X a long time ago and is even shipped as a component of OS X Server. The Apple Developer Connection now has a nice article about using and developing MySQL on OS X, including many quotes from Brian Aker.