installing composer and lavarel framework

[emb4wrk@gmail.com]

hello,

xampp version 1.8.3-1
os: 10.8.5

attempting to do: install laravel framework, but composer is a per-request.

per laravel i attempted to install composer but encountered an error with attempt.

message on terminal:
#!/usr/bin/env php
Some settings on your machine make Composer unable to work properly.
Make sure that you fix the issues listed below and run this script again:

The detect_unicode setting must be disabled.
Add the following to the end of your `php.ini`:
detect_unicode = Off

A php.ini file does not exist. You will have to create one.
If you can not modify the ini file, you can also run `php -d option=value` to modify ini values on the fly. You can use -d multiple times.

what i did:
per message above, i added detect_unicode = Off to my php.ini in etc. however, i am still getting the same error message above.

sadly, my comfort level in using the terminal to install is almost non-existent. any advise, help, tutorial on laravel would be of great help.

thanks in advance,
ed.