MAMP

My apologies....wasn't aware that XAMPP used MAMP.:o

Any particular reason you chose not to go with MAMP as a solution over XAMPP? ...

I'm used to doing much of my web development on a local MAMP install, and I'd like to replicate a similar set up on the server. ...

for Apache or if you made adjustments to any of the PHP installs for MAMP, be sure to at least keep a copy of those files. But, if you experiencing problems with MAMP perhaps you won't want to use the same configuration files. Keeping a copy of those files somewhere else for now won't hurt. ...

I was using MAMP to host website, use php etc. ...

Try Headdress. Or Patrick Gibson's terrific virtual hosts script . There are any number of ways to set up serving yourself, so to speak. Maybe you know PHP well enough to try I find that too many little things can go wrong or can be forgotten. Also: MAMP. A whole great package, incl. PHP, also free. These all have the advantage of ... actually working.

I am customizing Zen Cart templates using Dreamweaver on my Mac OSX 10.4.9 machine. Is there a way to see the effects of the php driven format changes without loading a server environment on my Mac or putting the page up on a php host server setup? I don't really need it to connect to the database yet, although at a later dev stage it would be necessary. Just the cosmetic...

you absolutely can get this setup and working. not much better then MAMP to be honest. ...

I currently use MAMP on my local machine for web development, but I don't work by myself so this isn't a great arrangement... hence the development server bit! ...

from php studio, but doesn't work from MAMP or Apache. ...