<p>I've been asked to create a fairly straightforward website for a friend. Essentially a user will log in, fill in a set of information, and submit it. This data will then need to written to a database (and read from/presented at a future point).</p>

<p>I'm not really a web developer (I do mostly Java/C++), but about 3 years ago I worked on a project where we created a site using WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP), with a bit of JavaScript/AJAX thrown in for good measure. I was going to use WAMP again, but am concerned that there might be better tools available now. </p>

<p>So, is the WAMP approach a good one for a straightforward site like this? </p>

<p>If so, what tools would you recommend to use for the development of PHP/Javascript?</p>

<p>Finally, I saw in one of the blog posts that Stack Overflow uses JQuery. Would it be worthwhile to use these libs?</p>

Assuming that the website you're going to be building is hosted on a WAMP stack, then I'd say continue to use that; otherwise, you may wanna stick with Windows/IIS/PHP/MySQL or SQL Server. I always try to make sure my development environment mirrors production as much as possible.
Secondly, if the user is simply logging in, submitting a form, and is then considered to be done, then using Ajax might be overkill; however, if you're definitely going to be going to Ajax route, then I definitely recommend using a library.
Prototype
or
jQuery
are fine - either one makes Ajax ridiculously simple.
Finally, as far as suggested tools are concerned, find something that fits the bill for what you're developing. If this site is as simple as you claim it is, something like
Notepad++
might be sufficient. Another option for the WAMP/LAMP stack is
Aptana Studio
. If you're going the Windows/IIS/SQL Server route, then use some of the
Microsoft Express
tools.
I could be way off, but if you're building a really simple site, don't spend more time configuring shiny new tools for something that can be done with the existing toolbox you've got.