I'm getting involved with a FIRST robotics team as a mentor. I'm gonna be in charge of the programming. (the fun stuff ). I need a CPLD for counting the geartooth pulses on the wheels. So I am looking to buy a development board.
I have one of these. $99.00 US It is Altera UP2 Educator Kit. Comes with a very good book. Free software. They now have newer kits. https://www.altera.com/education/univ/materials/boards/unv-dev-edu-boards.html
You will find that Altera and Xilinx do almost the same things. Both the UP2 and XC2-XL boards come with CPLD and FPGA and are bigger then you need.