title: Composer/Laravel Installation: My command line no longer understands the PATHs
body: <p><em>running mac Yosemite 10.10.5</em></p>
  
  <p>A couple of days ago I installed Laravel for the first time. That part went pretty smooth! Once it was time to install composer I was able to find some help here! This command on bash Profile made it work for me: <code>PATH="$PATH:~/.composer/vendor/bin"</code></p>
  
  <p>Fast-Forward to today when I am attempting to install XAMPP and Bitnami.. The Apache server and all that. So I think I am ready to roll and as I tried to create a project I was told that I did not have the mcrypt file? So down THAT rabbit hole I went. That was a tough one but I managed to get it to work. </p>
  
  <p>Now forgive me but I don't remember what happened next that led me to re-install composer and that turned out to be an other huge issue as it wouldn't allow me to do so.. I would get this message</p>
  
  <pre><code>Some settings on your machine make Composer unable to work properly.
  Make sure that you fix the issues listed below and run this script again:
  The detect_unicode setting must be disabled.
  Add the following to the end of your `php.ini`:
      detect_unicode = Off
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>After doing some research I was able to download Composer again by running this command.. </p>
  
  <pre><code>curl -s getcomposer.org/installer | php -d detect_unicode=Off
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I thought I was on my way.. 2 hours have gone by! Boy was I wrong! :(
  What once used to work.. composer commands in my terminal.. all of the sudden are not recognized.. </p>
  
  <p>Commands like this worked before..  <code>composer create-project laravel/laravel=5.0 TestApp</code></p>
  
  <p>but now it returns this.. <code>??+?abelista /Applications/XAMPP/htdocs</code> Question Marks along my machines name.. </p>
  
  <p>Nothing with <code>composer</code> runs.. I have tried changing my PATH in my Bash Profile too..</p>
  
  <p><code>PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin"</code></p>
  
  <p><code>PATH="~/.composer/vendor/bin/laravel:$PATH"</code></p>
  
  <p><strong><em>and remember this one below used to work..</em></strong></p>
  
  <p><code>PATH="$PATH:~/.composer/vendor/bin"</code></p>
  
  <p>From my understanding.. If I can recall correctly.. I think the problem began when I ran homebrew to install mcrypt.. I could be wrong. Does anyone here have the slightest idea what could be my issue?</p>
  
  <p>BTW, according to my command line.. composer is installed..</p>
  
  <pre><code>All settings correct for using Composer
  Downloading...
  
  Composer successfully installed to: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/composer.phar
  Use it: php composer.phar
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks for reading and trying to help me out. </p>