This page has a (PDF) book that is quite good on the process of learning the tools and the stages between VHDL and a working design. It uses the Xilinx tools and an FPGA but the steps are similar for Altera. 

Plus it costs nothing except disk and bandwidth to download the Xilinx tools and have them on hand for comparison.

In particular he says quite a lot that I skipped over, on the process of diagnosing and optimising performance problems.

Need Quartis II CPLD tutorial for learning VHDL from ZERO
I know that criteria is plural, but I am trying to explain a situation in which possibly the set of criterion should be considered singular.

In this situation, the set of criterion, called Criteria B, is necessary for a specific determination to be made. The sentence in questions says, "If Criteria B is negative, evaluators do not need to complete a comprehensive Criteria C."

or should it be:

"If Criteria B are negative, evaluators do not need to complete comprehensive Criteria C" 

I do not see this particular scenario addressed in other discussions of criteria/criterion. 
