for folk and rock, it wont take too long to learn a more than functional chord vocabulary
for blues, it'll take slightly longer
for jazz, it will take you a lifetime
BUT
at a certain point in your playing, new chords will become familiar much quicker, and your knowledge of intervallic relationships between strings will help you create chords on the spot.
for example, the first time i saw a B7b5 (not a Bm7b5), I could read that it was a B dominant chord with a flatted fifth as an alteration. Since I knew a B dominant, and where the fifth was in relation to that shape, I simply slid my third finger back one fret and had it. So, a B7 with the B on the A string (from A to B string) is 2 4 2 4. F# is the 5 of B, and since I wanted a b5, i slid back the 4th fret D string (an F#) to produce and F, the b5. The chord now looked like 2 3 2 4.
In a similar fashion, you can add nines, elevens, thirteens, and their respective sharps and flats without much thought. This might sound harder than it is, but with a bit of practice, you'll get the hang of it.
When you learn a new set of chords, always make sure you know which chord tones are where (i.e., in a B7 2 4 2 4 shape, the chord tones are 1 5 7 3).
good luck.
