Creating a Development Environment

[Aramaech]

I'd like to begin developing my own plugins and Apps, and so my question is what is the best environment to do so?

I have a dev board set up on a subdomain, which is a clone of the site.  I also have XAMPP which I could use to make a clone on as well.

Is it best to make a clone in XAMPP, develop things there, then test them on the dev board? 
Or is it best to just develop them directly on the dev board itself?

[bfarber]

I would just use a single development install, doesn't matter if it's local or online.

[Aramaech]

thanks

[Aiwa]

You'll get a lot of different answers here as it's a personal preference question. 

My suggestion would be to do what works best for you, your workflow, and your community. 

Personally, I use localhost for development ( affords the ability to use XDEBUG with my IDE ), will soon have a test board on my production server with automatic deployment of localhost developed applications by simply running a pull request with that applications master branch. 

That said, keep your licencing in mind. One IPS license, one test install. I have multiple licenses and can have multiple test/dev sites, up to 1 test site per license with the apps, and versions for those apps, each license has available to it. Localhost installs may not apply to that count, that is a question better left for IPS.

I used to work with a remote DEV site and synced the site root directory to my local machine so file changes uploaded immediately. That setup was more complicated than it was worth IMO because you can only DEV with Internet access and made using the full capabilities of an IDE impossible. 

If you explain your workflow, how many people are going to use it, what you want to get out of it, might be able to offer some addition opinions about what might suit your needs.