re:beginner [ query : resources and guidance for a newbie]

Hi,
There are two main fpga manufacturers, Xilinx and Altera...The
documentation provided with their free development tools have
everything you need.A good start is to learn vhdl, then download
xilinx ISE7 ,then read the VHDL techniques in XST(synthesis tool)
documentation ..then download a data*** of the target device
(Spartan 3, Virtex,..etc) ..then write code and compile and see how
it's synthesized and how the resources are used...

.