I want to start to learn PHP *TONIGHT* on a Mac! What the hell do I need and is there a good site/tutorial/book that is best suited for the job?

Don't do it. If you're not careful you'll wind up like me, with a full-time job writing PHP. I am not even remotely joking about this.

You want http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html. It's a program that, when running, runs a local Apache server with PHP / MySQL but when not running, does, um, nothing. My feeling is that it's slightly easier to get into, and slightly more like a production LAMP environment, than using the built-in webserver from Apple. As far as tutorials and books go, I think you'd find http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596157142.do to be useful.

I'd definitely rather use python for scraping the web: in terminal type: $ sudo easy_install pip $ sudo pip install requests $ python >>> import requests >>> page = requests.get("http://ask.metafilter.com/222413/I-want-to-start-to-learn-PHP-TONIGHT-on-a-Mac-What-the-hell-do-I-need-and-is-there-a-good-sitetutorialbook-that-is-best-suited-for-the-job") >>> page.text I recommend you use python as well - since it is cleaner than php and definitely better for parsing. php might be easier when making a quick and dirty website though. If you do go with python, also $ sudo pip install ipython and ipython will let you tab to autocomplete and all kinds of other things that make it better for learning and discovery>

http://us.php.net/ documentation is a good way to learn. They have a tutorial linked from the front page.

It isn't PHP or Python, but http://ruby.bastardsbook.com is a primer on Ruby written by a reporter who mainly uses it for scraping data. The projects are all scraping-centric, and deal with things like grabbing and following links, storing stuff in a database, and all of that jazz. If you fall out of the Python camp it might be worth a shot!

I liked http://www.tizag.com/phpT/ when I first tried to pick up PHP. When you start using a database to store and retrieve information, please start with PDO (baked into PHP) and parameters! Using parameters helps you completely avoid a major SQL security issue (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/04/give-me-parameterized-sql-or-give-me-death.html). That may seem like blue-sky stuff at the moment, but you'll be using databases very quickly if you don't give up. You will definitely want an editor that has syntax highlighting. http://www.sublimetext.com/ will bug you occasionally and ask you to purchase it, but you can use it indefinitely without paying for it. It is very good. There are likely many other free options for Macs if you google around (or wait for more suggestions in the thread). BTW, PHP tutorials should be OS agnostic. At most you might need OS-specific instructions for which text editor or IDE to use.

Are you familiar with Terminal (or http://projects.metafilter.com/3195/iTerm2-Mac-OS-Terminal-Replacement, from MeFi's own jewzilla)? Referencing any online or offline resource for PHP tutorials, you can run your own simple scripts from the command line. For example, from my Terminal session, I wrote* a script called test.php that had this one line: <?php print "Hello world!\n"; ?> Saved the file, and at the prompt I typed: php test.php There are other software out there that will let you edit PHP files, but if you want to start right now I believe your machine may already have the capability. At least this way, you can get your feet wet and hands dirty. Other sites for PHP tutorials include http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp. I also visit the PHP.net http://www.php.net/manual/en/ for function references, whenever my memory fails me. * FWIW, I used vim with a .vimrc file that enabled syntax highlighting and colors.

God, I love you guys :) I'll have to learn a bit about each and delve deeper from there. But this seems like a fantastic place to start. Thank you all so much!

Actually, just to quickly follow up, I've decided to learn Python and read Learn Python the Hard Way. Having read a bit about it, it sounds like that will provide a solid foundation for me, which is ultimately what I need, along with the mention of scrapy which may make sense to me at that point.