How to start to code myself archive page? (need sth to read)

Hi, I have used WP for 1 yr now. I’ve never hacked the index.php (or say the template in WP1.5) and I think it’s the time. Now I want to code myself archive page for displaying all the posts in a page. I’m new to PHP and don’t know any SQL. I know the WP Wiki is a good place to start to read, but…where should I start to read? Could you have any suggestion?
Thanks ??