Minimal Sharepoint Dev Environment

I have a Sharepoint 2013 Foundation server running and I want to eventually build custom workflows that use C# or some such to do all sorts of things that Sharepoint Designer isn't capable of.

I would like to do this without a big complicated dev environment, and the things I've read online seem to be inconsistent regarding what type of environment I will need. I've seen articles where development occurs on windows "desktop" (win 7, etc.), and others where you need a Windows 2008/2012 dev machine with Sharepoint installed. I've read some articles where Visual Studio Express/Community is adequate and some where you need VS Pro. Some things seem to work on Foundation, others only on the more expensive SharePoint Server. Is there some sort of flowchart or something that tells me what is needed and when?

Ideally, I would like to develop custom workflows on my Win7 machine, without a local copy of Sharepoint installed on said machine, using Visual Studio Express/Community. I'm even willing to buy VS Pro if I need to. I suppose I'm willing to do whatever it takes, but I just need to create a few very specific workflows and then be done with it, so I would rather not spend a bunch of time setting up a development environment that is more complicated than it's worth.

submitted by void1979
[link]