Getting started developing python and C++ plugins on Windows

I am interested in programming plugins for enigma 2 and I would appreciate if someone can help me get started, some links would be great.

I also have some specific questions, what is the preferred way of getting gcc on the box? And since I use windows I probably can't cross compile? So unless there are significant benefits to cross compiling I would opt to compiling on the box instead of doing it in linux VM.