I want to code a website that uses a database on my Macbook Pro. What do I need to get started?

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These days I would recommend Ruby on Rails.

When I started, I thought Rails was too daunting. But these days, the resources to learn are much better than they were when I was getting started. If you do as I did and start with Sinatra, then the lack of a database toolkit is going to frustrate you. It’s trivial for me to hook up a database to a Sinatra app, but you might find it to be a real pain.

Here is the seminal Rails tutorial: Ruby on Rails Tutorial (Rails 5)

It’s really all you need, but I should highlight this: Learn Enough Rails to Be Dangerous

It hasn’t been released yet, but looks very promising.

The tutorial isn’t going to walk you through setting up a database, unfortunately there are too many databases out there, and each database can be set up differently. My recommendation is to use PostgreSQL. There’s a no-brainer installer tool that should Just Work (TM) with default Rails settings, it’s here: Postgres.app – the easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac

If you find the documentation too frustrating, you can try a more batteries-included framework. This one seems to be the closest fit for what you’re looking for: Start - Zope.org

It’s Python based, and I can’t stand Python’s syntax, so I haven’t used it. But looking at the other Python frameworks, Flask and Django, they either tend to be too barebones or too feature-full to provide a good learning curve. I really hate Zope’s website, but their documentation, once you find it, seems pretty good.

The reason you haven’t found what you’re looking for yet is because the web changes incredibly quickly. It’s hard for resources to keep up with everything and stay complete. I don’t think you are going to be able to find the exact thing you’re looking for.