I guess this forum is like a living document. you should be able to find every thing you need to know here. and if you cant then you could ask and someone will happily tell you the answer.
You could start by looking at this unfinished basic guide
http://cnczone.com/forums/attachment...achmentid=2375 ( No one wanted to help me with it, so I have shelved the project for the moment.)
Also you can look through here for definitions. (Again it is unfinished for the above reasons )
http://cnczone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=172
I guess after that it is just a matter of sifting through the posts on here.