Now that we have the blueprints for the application, let's roll up our sleeves and start writing some code.
Start by opening a new terminal window and create a new project with Composer, as follows:
$ composer create-project laravel/laravel cats --prefer-dist $ cd cats
Once Composer finishes downloading Laravel and resolving its dependencies, you will have a directory structure identical to the one presented in the first chapter.
To start the application, unless you are running an older version of PHP (5.3.*), you will not need a local server such as WAMP on Windows or MAMP on Mac OS since Laravel uses the built-in development server that is bundled with PHP 5.4 or later.
To start the development server, we use the following artisan
command:
$ php artisan serve
Artisan is the command-line utility that ships with Laravel and its features will be covered in more detail in a future chapter.
Next, open your web browser and visit http...