I want to set up a VirtualHost so that when I type the 
project name in the address bar, it goes to the home page of the 
project.
httpd-vhosts.conf files in both XAMPP configuration and apache configuration:
<VirtualHost project>
    ServerAdmin 
[email protected]
    ServerName 
project
    DocumentRoot /Users/path/to/project/public
    <Directory "/Users/path/to/project/public">
        Options Includes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteOptions inherit
</VirtualHost>
I have also tried with the path directly to the 
project folder, and not the public folder of the 
project.
the httpd.conf of XAMPP and apache :
# Virtual hosts
Include /Applications/XAMPP/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
the /etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1   other1
127.0.0.1   other2
127.0.0.1   
project
I have tried :
127.0.0.1        
project
127.0.0.1:3000   
project
127.0.0.1        project:3000
I have also restarted the rails server and the XAMPP server many times after changes.  I have it working so that the project:3000/ works, but how do I get it so that I dont have to specify the port number?
Notes:
All other VHosts are working well.
Rails 3.2.8   (willing to change)
Ruby 1.9.3   
WEBrick server