After my last question, it was suggested that 'everything is in the manual'. So I decided to check it out, and found a series of structured exercises that take you through the programme. As I learn by doing, and not just reading (because the two don't always correspond and there is a lot of stuff that stops it from working without other settings being pre-loaded (not) and so for a beginner there are great hurdles to create seemingly simple things....until you actually come to do it.

And this is one of those times. I successfully by hook and crook somehow completed something that looked exactly like the one in the exercise, ie the swedish flag, yesterday, and so YAY dived into the next exercise: that of the european flag. So far I have gotten up to here:
https://snag.gy/CaNBgR.jpg

this is me getting to the points described around here in the tutorial at: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... pleEU.html as indicated by the tick in the next graphic which shows with the question mark where I am stuck.https://snag.gy/SVRI6A.jpg

I have no idea where and how to interpret this algebra from another life I no longer can fathom. Please can someone show me the way....where to enter what, precisely, most preferentially each and every entry as my mind is out of the loop.many thanks

I reckon those values refer to entries in the tiled-clones panel.

While those exercises in the manual are useful, I think the tutorials in the help section of the Inkscape program might be better for absolute beginners.

thank you!

Yes, like you, I quickly got lost in the Quick Start section of the manual. But I found the tutorials in the Help menu very helpful, as a beginner. However, those tutorials don't result in a finished drawing. It's just practice and learning.

You might have a look at the Beginner Skills block on this page: https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php. Most of those will end up with a finished drawing.