People who direct you to those stickies do so because they contain what you need. In this post is 95% of what you'll need to learn to start programming addons:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...11381244&sid=1
Assuming you know some basic programming, the first thing you should do is download the Blizzard Addon Kit, which happens to be the very first link in that post. It contains the source code for the Blizzard default UI, which is the only way to learn the Blizzard API if you just refuse to look at the wiki. But more importantly, it contains a tutorial which will help you start.
To write an addon, you need to know two things: Lua, and Blizzard's API. XML wouldn't hurt either, but you could probably get away without it, for now. Lua is the language that the UI is written in, so you need it to know the proper syntax and structure. If you've programmed before, it won't be that hard to pick up the basics. Blizzard's API is a list of the functions that Blizzard has built into their game engine, which you'll have to use in order to do anything.
If you bothered to read that post I pointed you to, you'll notice that the first section is called "Resources" and has links to all the stuff I just mentioned. It tells you where to download the Blizzard Addon Kit (called the Blizzard Customization Tools), as well as where to learn about Lua and Blizzard API. For Lua, your best bet is the online docs and manual at
www.lua.org. For the Blizzard API, there's the
www.wowwiki.com.
If you wanted to "assume you knew nothing" about coding Addons, then you could just scan through the FrameXML files provided by the Blizzard Addon Kit, and do your own testing, instead of reading the wiki. Personally, I think that's stupid, because you're just reinventing the wheel, but whatever. The best way to learn is by looking at example code, and since you're assuming a vacuum, you'd have to look at the only example code available to you, which is the Blizzard code. Unfortunately, you can't change that code, which is why if you were really wanting to learn, I'd suggest taking an existing addon and tinkering with it.