Regardless of whether or not XAMPP uses MAMP, I don't appear to have to be fiddling with the terminal shell, so thank you for the tip.
The point of getting an Apache server is so that I can learn php, and I now have it where it appears I can test php files.
OK, sorry for sounding like a technological imbecile here, but then, I am.
I downloaded Apache (which supposedly comes with php and mySQL integrated) from a website called Apache friends, and attempted to follow the installation instructions...