Thank you all for your suggestions of problem with PHP and Apache. For a person who is old and who has had no formal computer/language training, it has been a challenge.
I tried installing Local by WP in a Linux instance on Virtual Box as one trial. Even though it was a recent instance of Linux and the latest Local, it got itself lost and failed to find some of the files it needed to install. I’ll admit that I have a prejudice about Word Press. When I see WP, I always think of Word Perfect. Although clunky, in its day, I did a lot of page layout with it. Thanks anyway Kerri. It sounds like it works for you.
James, I looked at pkgx.sh and it looks like it could be quite thorough but perhaps more than I needed. I was a little hesitant to start the installation as I didn’t quite understand what what might be installed and I failed to see what might be expected or what to do if something went wrong.
Massimo. MAMP looked good and I recall the MAMP acronym from ages past when Apple did not include Apache in its installation. As a whole package, it looks like there is a lot you can do with it in terms of configuration.
Rick, your suggestions came in after I had solved my immediate issues late last night.
What I did to solve my particular issue was to use HomeBrew to create another instance of Apache2. It was able to deal with my previous installation of PHP (with HomeBrew) without additional certification. I did have some permission issue that was finally solved by adding permissions to the locations where I keep my draft sites.
Now I’m a happy BBEdit camper again. There certainly wan’t anything wrong with my BBEdit, in fact, it has been highly instrumental in tracking down files, comparing the old and new installations, and making minor (and major) edits to configuration files.
Thanks again all. Is this a great group, or what? GREAT.