May 06, 2002
Eating your own dog food
In an attempt to prove the software I'm helping to develop I am testing out the textRouter sample from PythonCard.
Architecture of a laptop
I'm also trying to get to grips with basic CGI scripting in Apache, but more on that later. What I have discovered is that I have an Apache server running on my laptop and I didn't even know it. Rather than constantly updating and then copying files to my hosting provider (the lovely people at cornerhost) I thought I could work on them locally and only put them up when they work. It would save me from RSI caused by firing up ftp every couple of minutes.
I downloaded a web server and installed it. When I fired it up it told me that something was already listening on port 80. When I delved further I got an Oracle help screen. A-ha, I thought I've got Oracle 8.1.6 running on this machine, it must have some sort of http server built in. Sure enough it does, Apache.
Cue much slapping of forehead and cursing of Redwood Shores. So I can not only test my html and CGI scripts out locally, but I don't need to install any more software to do so. Its just a shame that I make my living using Oracle software and hadn't realised this was the case - woops.
For the curious, if you just want to use the Oracle/Apache set up out of the box and you have Oracle 8i (or above) installed on a machine near you, stick your html files in $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/htdocs and your CGI scripts in $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/cgi-bin
Posted by Andy Todd at May 06, 2002 12:35 PM