Proper Use Of Settings API Explained???

I don’t know why but I can’t understand how to use the settings API properly, like what order things should be executed in my plugin. Can someone explain the proper way to use the settings API. The example isn’t enough to figure out how to put it all together. In fact the example and all the tutorials on the web seem to conflict, is there a decent late 2011 or 2012 tutorial for settings implementation? Or can someone explain this… I found a plugin called Plugin Options Starter Kit but it uses options which I thought were not required when using settings??? it register_setting but nothing else like settings_fields…