I like new stuff. I especially like new stuff thats free. Those crazy folks over at PHP are constantly updating and perfecting the PHP programing language, pushing the envelope of features and security.
Its a good chance that while you are reading this, there is a later and greater version of PHP you could be using. But it seems so scary and complicated to install yourself.
There are some good groups of people who develop packages for the Mac, such as Marc Liyanage, that make getting pretty current easy. But even then you have to wait for those people to get the latest package and set it up in a nice little bindle for you to use.
Building PHP yourself can seem a little perplexing and overwhelming. There are a lot of dependent packages that need to be installed to get the most out of your PHP. The good news is that once you install all those other packages, you can upgrade your php rather easily by downloading the newest release and configuring it with those already pre-installed dependencies.
This article will be a walk through tutorial of installing PHP 5.3.3 on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It will include a good set of features, beyond what comes with the stock Mac PHP installation. It will cover the installation of many packages that will give you the ability to run features from GD image and FFMPEG/-PHP.
So without further ado, here we go!