Ok I decided not to wait, and instead I used my linux expertise (hehe) and brute forced it in windows xp. Here is how I did it.
I installed two copies of WAMP5 (the names are hypothetical, and you can change them)
C:\DEV\WAMP5\ <-- I did *not* select automatic service install while installing this
C:\PROD\WAMP5\ <-- I *did* select automatic service install while installing this
I left the default configuration for the dev directory. The prod directory I changed in the following manner (basically change apache and mysql listen ports)
* httpd.conf I replaced :80 with :81 everywhere, and I changed Listen 80 to Listen 81
* my.ini I replaced 3306 with 3307 everywhere
So now the situation is as before I asked the question: I have prod with modified ports, set up to run automatically. While it is running, however, I am unable to run dev. So here is what I do:
First I install the dev apache2 as another service:
apache.exe -k install -n "wampapachedev"
(note you should be able to use "-i" instead of "-k install" for older versions of apache)
Second I install the dev mysql as another service:
mysqld-nt.exe --install wampmysqlddev
(note, older versions of mysql service might be called mysqld.exe)
Third I fix the dev wampserver.ini: replace all wampapache with wampapachedev and all wampmysqld with wampmysqlddev
Fourth I create a new Windows user called "DEV". I start the C:\DEV wamp by right clicking C:\dev\wamp5\wampserver.exe, selecting "Run as..." and selecting the "DEV" user. (You can also probably do this step by going into control panel -> admin -> services, and going into properties for the wampapachedev, wampmysqlddev services, and selecting the logon to be "DEV" ... I have not tested this.)
You can test all of this by going into localhost:80 and localhost:81, then go in each one to sqlitemanager -> test database -> t1 table -> display, and then edit one of the rows, and compare the edit on the other port, to make sure everything is good
edit: of course you will have to reconfigure sqliteadmin maybe phpmyadmin as well
edit: an even better way to install the dev services, is to skip steps "First" and "Second", and instead edit the install*.bat scripts in C:\DEV\WAMP5 replacing all wampapache with wampapachedev and wampmysqld with wampmysqlddev. Then you can use those scripts to install, instead of by hand, because those scripts supplly some extra possibly necessary parameters besides the service names...
Post Edited (11-17-06 22:14)