MAMP is a popular development tool for Mac based programmers. The name is a play on LAMP, Linux+Apache+MySQL+PHP, the popular website hosting paradigm. While we might deploy to a LAMP system we often develop on a Mac, hence the need for a Mac equivalent. Out of the box Mac's come with Apache and PHP, and with a little work MySQL can be installed. But some people want better control.
The PHP+Apache setup delivered with MacOSX is not good enough for serious development work.
Installing PHP 5.4 and 5.3 side by side on Max OSX via MacPorts
https://gist.github.com/raphaelstolt/2721719
Step-by-Step LAMP server from scratch with MacPorts
http://muddledramblings.com/rumblings-from-the-secret-labs/lamp-server-from-scratch-with-macports/
Installing PHP 5.3 using MacPorts
http://blog.magudia.com/2009/08/22/installing-php53-apache2-mysql5-using-macports/
PHP 5.5/5.4/5.3 for OS X 10.6/10.7/10.8/10.9 as binary package
http://php-osx.liip.ch/ and https://github.com/liip/build-entropy-php
MacPorts MAMP HOWTO
https://trac.macports.org/wiki/howto/MAMP
