For designing, I use Photoshop to create a feel of the site, then I render the CSS and XHTML. For programming, I use Ruby on Rails(check out their website) and

For designing, I use Photoshop to create a feel of the site, then I render the CSS and XHTML. For programming, I use Ruby on Rails(check out their website) and PHP. PHP is very easy to pick up, the learning curve is lower but in my opinion Rails is the way to go.