One of the hurdle I met and everyone else met is trying to install MySQL adapter for Python. Being the most popular database used, it is crucial to have it work rather than circumventing around the problem by using alternative database such as SQLite or PostgreSQL.

After a few hours of searching, I found a few references that somewhat not entirely complete. I did some cross referencing and found two brings me to the entire solutions, which I'm about to show below.

Step 0:
Before I start, I assumed that you have MySQL and Python installed on the mac.

Step 1:
Download the latest MySQL for Python adapter from SourceForge.

Step 2:
Extract your downloaded package by typing

$ tar xzvf MySQL-python-1.2.2.tar.gz

Step 3:
Inside the folder, clean the package by typing

$ sudo python setup.py clean

Step 4:
In the same folder, edit _mysql.c using your favourite text-editor

4a. Remove the following lines (37-39):

#ifndef uint
#define uint unsigned int
#endif

4b. Change the following:

uint port = MYSQL_PORT;
uint client_flag = 0;

to

unsigned int port = MYSQL_PORT;
unsigned int client_flag = 0;

Step 5:
Create a symbolic link under lib to point to a sub-directory called mysql. This is where it looks for during compilation.

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql

Step 6:
Edit the setup_posix.py and change the following

mysql_config.path = "mysql_config"

to

mysql_config.path = "/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config"

Step 7:
In the same directory, rebuild your package (ignore the warnings that comes with it)

$ sudo python setup.py build

Step 8:
Install the package and you are done.

$ sudo python setup.py install

Step 9:
Test if it's working. It works if you can import MySQLdb.

$ python
>>> import MySQLdb

Voila.

References:
n.code
RedElephant
Django users Google Groups

More information can be found here (that's where I found what it means):
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_get.asp

Surprisingly, it's much harder than I thought. There are so many things involved around this "Web" subject ranging from the technicality of web server technologies, web standards, HTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, Javascript, etc. And most of them correlated. Chicken and Egg problem.

I began to wonder, should I take at a high level approach or a low level approach? A high level approach would to be give them a well-finish site, like WordPress, and start exploring parts by parts when they want to make changes to the website, wherelse a low level one will be explain bits and pieces and relate it to them.

What do all of you think? Do you all have any experience in learning or teaching?