Login to MySQL:

~$ mysql -u username -p

Create a database:

create database db_name;

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Pretty URLs are URLs that have meaning for human readers, rather than just being seemingly random jibberish only a web server could appreciate. The following is an example of a “pretty” URL:

http://my.blog.com/archive/2007/10/pretty-urls

Note that every part of the URL is relevant for a human reader. For comparison, here’s an example of an “ugly” URL:

http://www.mysite.com/nuke/modules.php?name=Forums&file=posting&mode=quote&p=14488&sid=0293840293840577

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If you want to build dynamic websites, one of the first things you’ll need to do is set up a development environment your local computer, so you can experiment and test new code without uploading everything to a remote web server. In a nutshell, this means LAMP — Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

With this setup, you’ll be primed and ready to go to run popular content management software on your local box–like Drupal, Joomla or Silverstripe; start a WordPress or Textpattern blog; or even roll your own community site from scratch using a hot framework like CakePHP.

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