When i was on about index.php i was more talking about the "index" bit more that the PHP bit as i i have gotten into a habbit of ending files with php as that is all i use. sorry
I gather everything you're doing in on a Unix machine.... If it becomes a bad habit and you now have to do something on a Windows machine you're going to run into problems.... Unless you're scripting something and you need to use queries there is no reason to use .php.... There are also some instances where index.html(php,asp) won't work and the page needs to be titled default.html.....
Dreamweaver does what it's supposed to do.... I've never used frontpage so I can't comment on it... I do know that dreamweaver's code is extremely sloppy and it needs to be cleaned up by hand....
I do all my mockups in Photshop before I ever write a line of html..... My photoshop files could be pretty much used as web pages in the state they are with a little javascript and cutting....