How to use PHP CLI

[pja]

Hi! I am new to PHP (I have been installing WordPress and other web content software for not-for-profit organisations and thought I ought to learn PHP). I am also trying to move my development environment from Windows XP to Ubuntu (6.06 on this PC). I have installed XAMPP (1.6.1) with no problems and am using gPHPEdit to edit PHP scripts. gPHPEdit can check script syntax but returns an error message saying "Error calling PHP CLI...".

I have Googled this without success and am lost! Can anyone please tell me how I can get PHP CLI working in my environment?

Another problem I have is with permissions; I have setup gFTP to access the XAMPP 'development' site and I can copy files to and from the root localhost directory (/htdocs I think) but cant make changes in the xampp directory. I ran the script to improve Xampp security and things seem to be even worse! Is there an easy introduction to this stuff?

Any help will be gratefully received.

Regards,
Peter