Why Create a Local Server on Your Computer



Programming


In this article, we explain why you would want to have a local server installed on your computer.

Before we go into that, let's define what a server is.

A server is a computer that is able to process requests and return files to another computer. In other words, a server is hardware that contains software that is able to process and return data.

So why would you ever want to create your own local server on your computer?

Let's talk about this for a while.

Because if you've been programming on the web, you've probably heard of a local server.

And there are many reasons to create and use a local server.

For example, you may create or use a local server so that you can run PHP code.

If you don't have a web hosting company that you can transfer PHP files, you won't be able to execute PHP code.

So to run PHP code without having a web hosting company that offers PHP, you could create a local server that can process PHP code.

This is the same for many other web languages, such as Python.

If you install django, you can then run Python code using the local server on your computer as the software returning the relevant files requested. This local server is able to process and return Python code.

So you are able to run Python code on a web browser without having a web hosting company that has support for django and python.

Another reason people like using local servers is that they want to test their code completely without showcasing it on a live server which the rest of the world can access.

Of course you can test code on a live server and have ways of concealing it so that the world doesn't see before it's ready to be published. But with this method, there's always a chance that it can still be discovered if tested on a live server. However, with a local server, there is really no way that the world can see files that aren't ready to be published. It is on a local, not live, server. So many programmers prefer to first create and thoroughly debug files on a local server so that it doesn't get into the hands of the world before its time.

Another reason why you would use a local server is maybe because you have a web hosting company that doesn't have support for a particular language. Let's say you have godaddy and you don't have support a specific software let's say python. You would then just create a local server on your computer that offers Python support, so that you can run Python on the web.

So these are a number of reasons why you would want to have a local server on your computer.


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