I would suggest an ICD2 clone, like the Inchworm or Inchworm+ (search on here for them). C++ and Visual languages don't really have any place with microcontrollers, and C compilers are expensive - although most provide limited demo versions. Assembler is free though, and my tutorials show pretty well what you want.
If you want to use C, I would suggest moving to the higher spec 18F series, where they provide a free C compiler, although if you pay for it you get better optimisation.