Having a local development environment for WordPress websites is incredibly useful. It allows you to design, develop and experiment with projects – all on your own computer.
This is both a powerful and efficient way to create websites. File edits are reflected with a refresh of your browser as opposed to uploading via FTP. Need a new WordPress install? You can deploy one with a single click. Best of all, you can work on a local site without interfering with visitors. Everything is in its own self-contained environment.
And you can now bring the power of local WordPress development to your macOS or Windows machine with DevKinsta. This completely free tool from Kinsta has everything you need to start building. And, you don’t even need to be a Kinsta customer to use it!
Let’s take a look at what DevKinsta has to offer and how it can change your workflow for the better.
There are so many reasons for developing WordPress websites locally. You could leverage it for building a new site from scratch, redesigning an existing site or testing out that new plugin you’re writing.
And that’s only the beginning. Once you start using a local development suite like DevKinsta, you’ll find more and more reasons to use it. You’ll save time and the hassles that come from working with a remote server.
DevKinsta is here to help and offers some incredible features, such as:
DevKinsta has all the tools you’ll need to build and test WordPress websites locally. To get started, download a copy of the installer for your macOS or Windows computer.
Download DevKinsta:
*Please note: by downloading DevKinsta, you agree to Kinsta’s Terms of Service.
Setup is a breeze! Check out the video below for more information on installing and configuring DevKinsta.
Once you’ve installed DevKinsta, you can spin up a new WordPress install in no time at all. Create a single or multisite install that runs on Nginx and MariaDB. If you’re a Kinsta hosting customer, you can even import a live site directly onto your local machine.
The included local database and email management tools will help you hit the ground running. The included Adminer will allow you to edit your WordPress database, while an SMTP server helps you inspect and debug email.
Whether your project requires a specific PHP version or you need to test before upgrading, DevKinsta has you covered. You can choose from PHP 7.2 – 8.0. Need to make a quick change? Switch versions with just a few clicks. This makes it easy to know if your code is compatible.
If you’re a Kinsta customer, you’ll love the added convenience DevKinsta provides. Download your live site directly to your machine or push your local site to Kinsta’s staging environment. There’s no need to mess with complicated export plugins. This will seriously streamline your workflow.
Developing WordPress websites locally has been a popular practice among web professionals for years. But the difficulty in setting up a local server left a lot to be desired. DevKinsta has turned that narrative upside down by putting everything you need into a single, easy-to-install package.
Now, you can build websites, troubleshoot code and test out new software right on your local machine. This is not only better for developers, it’s also of great benefit to users as well. By squashing bugs before they get to your production website, you’re ensuring a better user experience.
And, while DevKinsta works seamlessly with Kinsta hosting accounts, you don’t need to be a Kinsta customer to take advantage. You can use DevKinsta regardless of where you site is hosted. Oh, and it’s completely free to use!
Download your copy of DevKinsta today and enjoy all the benefits of a local WordPress development suite.
The post Create a Local WordPress Development Environment for Free with DevKinsta <span class="sponsored_text">Sponsored</span> appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
There’s a common saying in the fiction-writing world: kill your darlings. No, this isn’t some morbid encouragement to do bodily harm to your loved ones. Killing your darlings means that you should never get too precious about what you put down on the page.
If something is not working – whether it’s a word, a sentence, or even a whole page or chapter – any writing instructor worth their salt will tell you to simply remove that part from your work and start again.
Too often, we will labor over work that we know, deep down, is flawed, but that we somehow hope against hope that we can fix. Sometimes we can. But the majority of the time, that hope is completely in vain.
We’re going to uncover a few strategies creative professionals can use to quickly do away with all those bad design ideas, and move on to the good ones.
We’ve all done it. We’re happily working away on a project, everything is going smoothly – then we hit our first snag. A color choice that seems off; a piece of copy that isn’t quite hitting the right notes with our target audience.
But, instead of stopping immediately and performing emergency surgery, we decide to let the “illness” fester and grow until it becomes a giant, looming monster with a mind of its own, threatening to overtake the entire project. Don’t worry, though; it’s okay. You didn’t know that tiny little thing would grow into such a big deal. Or did you?
Most of the time, we know when we’ve just planted a bad seed in our work which will inevitably bloom into a hideous flower. We can see the crack in the facade hours, days, weeks or sometimes months before it spreads.
We all have a little voice in our heads that tells us ‘nope, this isn’t going to work’ right when we make the first fatal mistake. Whether we choose to listen to it is a completely different story.
If something isn’t working, it’s absolutely imperative to scrap it and start over as quickly as possible. If you don’t, you only end up wasting more time and prolonging the inevitable. I can’t tell you how many projects – both personal and professional – that have taken far more time to complete than necessary simply because I was too stubborn to abandon a poor decision.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that this is the easiest path to take with your work – far from it. It can be painful to suddenly dump something you’ve been laboring on and start over. Like ripping off a bandage that’s stuck to your skin, it can sting to do what needs to be done.
But it’s infinitely preferable to just get it out of the way than making the process slow and messy. If you don’t think so, remember back to a time you tried pulling a bandage off slowly, rather than quickly.
It hurt a lot more when you did the former, didn’t it? When revising your designs, quick, sharp, and ruthless is always the better approach.
The next time you feel yourself becoming stubborn about something that isn’t working, try getting up and walking away for a few minutes. Longer, if you can – a few days can give you a remarkably fresh outlook on just about anything.
Ask someone you trust for their opinion; chances are that they will confirm what you already know to be true. If you’re getting a second, third, or fifteenth opinion, and they’re all telling you the same thing, you’ll know that it’s time to get out your scalpel and make the cut.
Cutting into your work hurts no matter what. We’re very possessive of our creative output, and we can agonize over “hurting” it or removing any parts. Unfortunately, there’s little you can do about that feeling. It’s part of being a creative person.
But a clean cut is easier to bandage and heal than a jagged one. In culinary school, future chefs learn that cutting one’s self with a sharp knife is much better than doing so with a blunt one. And by ‘learn,’ I mean, we slice our poor fingers so many times that we never even think of picking up a knife without sharpening it first.
Once you start over and dump whatever isn’t working, you will immediately notice the benefits of doing so. Your work flows more smoothly, and you begin making interesting connections you couldn’t before.
You gain clarity and creative insight, and typically you’ll finish your work much quicker than you expected. Maybe you’ll even finish ahead of schedule and surprise your client or yourself.
I’m sure you can think of at least one project you’ve been stalling on that will almost certainly pick up momentum once you eliminated whatever you know isn’t working. I know I can.
Killing your bad ideas isn’t something you learn once and then forget about. It takes constant vigilance to catch yourself whenever you feel any reluctance to “perform surgery” on your work.
We creatives can be stubborn, refusing to listen to our intuitive voices of reason when they attempt to steer us back on the right path with our work. We insist we can fix what’s not working not by removing it, but by working it to death, forcing it to bend to our almighty will.
This is almost always a terrible idea. The sooner you can learn to face facts and be honest with yourself, the smoother your workflow will be.
The post Doing Away With Bad Design Ideas and Moving on to the Good Ones appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
Latest PECL Releases:
get_code_filename_line
Changes from beta1:
For over two decades, I’ve been fortunate enough to work from home. No maddening commute and all the coffee I can handle. Sounds pretty cool, right?
And, even when a global pandemic sent the world scrambling to work remotely, things stayed relatively the same here (save for my child enrolling in online school). Being in a familiar environment, away from all the chaos, is a true blessing.
But even blessings have their downside. For all the benefits of working from home, there’s also a real sense of isolation. You may go days without leaving home or seeing anyone outside of those you live with. A public health crisis only serves to amplify the effect.
This is a heavy burden for freelance web designers. Life seems to consist mainly of work. It’s something many of us have learned to live with. But that doesn’t necessarily equate to thriving.
While there’s no easy fix, there are some ways to decrease the negative impacts of isolation. The following are tips for beating those stuck-in-your-home-office blues.
You don’t need to live on the edge of an enchanted forest to enjoy the outdoors. Nature, or some form of it, is available to just about all of us.
For instance, I live in a small town. We have some lovely parks to visit. But even if I can’t get to the park, I still enjoy the natural elements in my own back yard. I’ve set up some bird feeders and enjoy watching the cardinals, finches and chickadees peck away. They are calming and sometimes even comical. I spend a lot of time enjoying them – particularly in the warmer months.
Wherever you happen to be in the world, admire the nature right outside your window. Maybe birds aren’t your thing – that’s OK. You could find comfort in watching squirrels climb the trees or telephone poles. Even caring for a houseplant or two can be effective.
Most importantly, get outside for at least a few minutes each day. Grab some natural light and feel the breeze against your face. These things are both good for you and free – so take advantage!
We humans are social beings. And, even though in-person interactions are difficult to come by, there are still opportunities to connect with others. This is especially so within the web design and development communities.
Social media is still buzzing with activity, if not more so than before. There are some great Facebook pages and groups that cater to specific tools like WordPress or even languages such as CSS. Twitter has plenty of relevant hashtags, such as #WebDesign and #WebDev, among others. They are great ways to expand your knowledge and get to know some cool people.
Virtual events are also becoming quite common. Several in-person meetups have switched to Zoom during the pandemic. It seems like there are always online get-togethers being held, so be on the lookout for ones that are of interest to you.
None of this fully replaces the fun of being out amongst the crowds. But you can get creative. Participating in a virtual event from a place that isn’t your office (your living room, back yard, etc.) can at least make it feel like you’re out and about.
Working from home often brings with it the temptation to put in extra hours. With such easy access to your office, spending some nights and weekends at your desk can seem like a positive. It helps you cross some tasks off of your to-do list – reassuring in its own right.
Doing this once in a while is fine. But spend too many hours working and you risk becoming overwhelmed. Both your body and mind can suffer the consequences. Suddenly, it becomes harder to focus and sit still. Continuing to grind out those hours only makes it worse.
Taking some time off may be just what you need. Even if it’s not a traditional vacation, the mere fact that you are away from the office is beneficial. Whether the distance is ten feet or a hundred miles, it’s worth doing.
If your situation prevents you from taking in the tourist sites, there’s still plenty to do at home. Tackle an improvement project you’ve been putting off or take the dog for a walk.
And, for goodness sake, turn off your email! The constant buzz of new notifications is pretty much the opposite of relaxation. Let your clients know that you’ll be unavailable, then chill out as best you can.
Being (mostly) confined to your home office can really take its toll on your well-being. Therefore, it’s vital to try and stay connected to the world around you.
Spend time in nature to clear your head. Participate in personal and professional communities to reinforce a sense of belonging. And take some time off to refresh your creative spirit.
None of these things may be as profound as, say, going to a packed concert or travelling to your favorite vacation spot. But they can add up to make a positive difference in your life.
The post Dealing with the Isolation of Freelance Life appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
A C/C++ compiler suite from NVIDIA, offering support for parallel computing that use NVIDA GPUs, and full C++17 support, has been added to the Free C/C++ Compilers page. (C and C++ are popular programming languages used by many to write computer programs.)
