Specifically,
- what are the preferred development tools (free?)
- Are there any good tutorial sites that are up-to-date with the latest version of Wordpress
- Has anyone ever done Wordpress/PHP development using Visual Studio? Is that even possible?
I am aware of the API documentation on the wordpress site; however it all assumes that the development environment is already set up. I don't even have PHP on my local machine, and have never done any PHP development.
I know that the coding can all be done in Notepad and then uploaded to the server; I was hoping for some substantive advice from someone else who has actually made the jump from .Net to PHP about what tools and tutorials are available to help make the jump.