So we're all at least somewhat techy if we're into bitcoin, but that doesn't mean we all know how to code like a pro.
I believe there is a serious lack of tutorials and step-by-step walk throughs available in the bitcoin ecosystem.
I want to use visual basic .NET (but 2.0), and I find that there are so many endless tutorials on using python and also for C#. But since I'm a big fan of visual basic .NET, I find that its impossible to find guides to do almost anything.
I'm mostly interested in trying to make a raw transaction as a nice challenge, but also sometime maybe begin a project of building a desktop wallet in .NET, or better yet, an open source .NET library on github for versions below 4.0.
It is of course a little bit easier in .NET4.0, as it has many of those bitcoin related crypto functions like BigIntegers, RIPEMD160, ECDSA calculation etc, but i would prefer trying to make it in .NET 2.0 as this way I'm having most of the tools to converting the code to a VB clone with multiOS compiling.
So, a few years ago, I moved from vb to c# and never looked back. Don't let c# push you away, I have a couple of recommendations for you if you ever want to switch:
C# & VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference By Jose Mojica
Build Your Own ASP.NET 4 Web Site Using C# & VB, 4th Edition
Check out George Kimionis's Bitcoin Library for .net -
https://github.com/GeorgeKimionis/BitcoinLibThat being said, designing a good web application these days is very difficult in .net, at least up to VS 2013. I haven't tried the later version yet. There's a lack of a good IDE that welds dynamic client facing code (jquery, ajax, etc) with server side code unless you use expensive add-ons (telerik, etc).