With the release of Lion, there are some subtle differences to setting up a local MAMP (Mac OS X, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment compared to Snow Leopard. In an effort to keep this from being overly wordy and just get to the good stuff, we'll dive right in, so read on to get started.

Apple OS X comes with Apache and PHP built-in but need some tweaking to work. It also does not come with MySQL. Because of this, many developers have chosen to use MacPorts, Homebrew, or MAMP to install new binaries for Apache, PHP, and MySQL. However, doing this means your system would have multiple copies of Apache and PHP on your machine, and could create conflicts depending on how your built-in tools are configured. This tutorial will show you how to get the built-in versions of Apache and PHP running with an easy to install version of MySQL.

Let's start here: Drupal for Firebug is amazing. I'll even go so far as to say that it's more useful than Devel Themer. More details below, but you should start by downloading the Drupal for Firebug Firefox extension (or the Chrome one) and drush dl drupalforfirebug on a local project and giving it a spin.

I've always been a bit perplexed by the relatively short lifespan of any given Drupal version, particularly when big changes, such as API modification, always rear their heads. I first began Drupal development back when things were still 4.6 and 4.7 was a whisper in darkened corners of run-down bars. When Drupal 4.7 finally came out I had just gotten a handle on how 4.6's APIs worked, and here I was, having to unlearn what I had learned. Thankfully, it was a quick process, and forms API turned out to be much more of a help than a hindrance.

About a year and a half later, we're on the verge of a stable release of Druapl 6.x, and I'm looking forward to this one much more than I was for 4.7. So, in celebration of that fact, I figured I'd run down a few elements of Drupal 6.x that I'm excited about.

• Theming for JS functions
  What it does:
  Allows customized JS output.
  Why it's cool:
  In the past, this stuff has all been hard-coded, but now, you can wrap your output functions in Drupal.theme('function_name','...') to get them to process out via either your custom theme, or via the default. From Drupal.org,
  

  "JavaScript theme functions are entirely free in their return value. It can vary from simple strings, up to complex data types like an object containing in turn several jQuery objects which are wrapped around DOM elements. See the original (default) theme function to see what your custom theme function should return."

• Actions!
  What it does:
  Allows for configurable Drupal-y things to occur after being triggered by some other Drupal-y thing.
  Why it's cool: