Brian-
Without getting into extreme detail, the basics are thus:
Browsers know how to parse HTML, which is why local files work in the browser.
Browsers don't know how to parse PHP. It's turned into HTML at the server
level. You need a server (Apache, usually) and PHP running on the server to
parse the files, and present HMTL to the browser.
Without that parsing happening, PHP is never going to execute in just the
browser alone.
As to obscurity: Most people don't run apache locally, so it's not something
for newbies, generally. People that deal with this sort of thing daily can
figure it out (naming conventions, etc.) and even given that, most of the time
when one builds a server, one isn't downloading and compiling apache from
source or even installing binaries, usually the operating system (unix/linux)
either has a pacakge manager that abstracts it, or the software is
pre-installed. (Macs have apache pre-installed, I am pretty sure..., as an
example.)
Honestly the easiest thing is to find a webhost that offers PHP, and
preview/test your code directly on your site. That's what I do, and this is the
sort of thing I do for a living. I used to run apache locally, on my
workstation, but I don't even bother with that anymore, I just use the
server(s).
-Ed
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