VS Program to work with SharePoint that is not on the same machine

Question

Hello! I am fairl new to programming in Visual Studio and even newer trying to work with SharePoint. I've just learned that VS and SharePoint must be installed on the same machine, but then a virtual development machine can be set up. If that is the case
I may run into a problem. I am developing programs where I wanted my answers to be written to SharePoint lists. My programs will be spread out across my organization that will not have SharePoint installed on their computer, they will simply be able to access
it through internet explorer. Will my programs be able to write to SharePoint lists in this case? Also, if there is any easier way to develop with this capability I am happy to learn.

Answer 1

I have also attempted to copy some code from a training video out found which is below:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim lists As New BofaListWebReference.Lists()
lists.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
Dim listName As String = "TestElevated"
Dim viewName As String = "All Items"
Dim query As System.Xml.XmlNode
Dim viewFields As System.Xml.XmlNode
Dim rowLimit As String = "100"
Dim queryOptions As System.Xml.XmlNode
Dim responseNode As System.Xml.XmlNode
Dim itemNode As System.Xml.XmlNode
responseNode = lists.GetListItems(listName, viewName, query, viewFields, vbNull, queryOptions, vbNull)
For Each itemNode In responseNode
Label1.Text = Label1.Text + itemNode.InnerXml
Next
End Sub
However, everytime I run it I get the following error message:
Exception of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SoapServer.SoapServerException' was thrown.
I should also note that in the responseNode line, query, viewFields, and queryOptions have green lines underneath and the code I found this from did not include an entry for the final parameter so I just included vbNull as I seen that from a training video.