There is no "printed" documentation for any of this -- or for most stuff. It changes too fast! There are some good books out there, you can find a list of some of the most used in the FAQ.
Some things aren't yet answered... if you have a specific question, it usually will get an answer in a short while.
The benefit of the FAQ.. is that it has somewhat better indexing/search features than the forum, and I try to pick the keywords to make the searches jump out at you. (It's also a good example of what Links can do
It also shows what questions/answers most people find helpful ....
One very nice thing, when you are in the "design" stage of the site, is to create a new templates directory -- development or something like that.
Then, work in that directory, and use page.cgi to see your changes.
ie: .../cgi-bin/Links/page.cgi?t=development
It will reflect all the changes immediately. You need to check the FAQ for some tips on setting up your links to allow for this -- especially for the detailed pages links.
When you get it right, copy them over, and rebuild your site (always back up your last working template set!!)
I find page.cgi to be most useful at design/development time, than as a run-time option (at least now).
The fact it exists, means that the site _can_ be dynamically generated, and eventually that will lead to customization, user preferences, etc. Right now, it's still very early in the life cycle, and while it _will_ currently allow addition of dynamic content (advertising, news, stats, etc), and a selection of templates -- and/or for sites with low volume, but high content, to not waste diskspace on never accessed pages, it's not (IMHO) completly worked out.
At some point, with true dynamic page generation, the underlying processes that allow the current page.cgi to run, will allow sites to dynamically serve all their content. Right now -- the limitations on system resources -- cpu, memory, other processes -- limit true dynamic page generation for most sites. You need significantly more hardware to dynamically serve a site vs staticly serve it -- maybe 4-6x the horsepower -- and the more hits you get, the more that number goes up.
New advances in hardware may make this a moot point -- but for every jump in hardware, there is a 2 fold jump in what we expect it to be able to do <G>