more blurb

docs/CONTRIBUTE

@@ -6,15 +6,16 @@
 
 To Think About When Contributing Source Code
 
- This document is intended to offer some guidelines that can be useful to keep
- in mind when you decide to write a contribution to the project. This concerns
+ This document is intended to offer some simple guidelines that can be useful
+ to keep in mind when you decide to contribute to the project. This concerns
  new features as well as corrections to existing flaws or bugs.
 
 Join the Community
 
  Skip over to http://curl.haxx.se/mail/ and join the appropriate mailing
  list(s).  Read up on details before you post questions. Read this file before
- you start sending patches!
+ you start sending patches! We prefer patches and discussions being held on
+ the mailing list(s), not sent to individuals.
 
 The License Issue
 
@@ -29,9 +30,9 @@ The License Issue
 
 What To Read
 
- Source code, the man pages, the INTERALS document, the TODO, the most recent
+ Source code, the man pages, the INTERNALS document, the TODO, the most recent
  CHANGES. Just lurking on the libcurl mailing list is gonna give you a lot of
- insights on what's going on right now.
+ insights on what's going on right now. Asking there is a good idea too.
 
 Naming
 
@@ -39,19 +40,24 @@ Naming
  names. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that you should use the same as in
  other places of the code, just that the names should be logical,
  understandable and be named according to what they're used for. File-local
- functions should be made static.
+ functions should be made static. We like lower case names.
+
+ See the INTERNALS document on how we name non-exported library-global symbols.
 
 Indenting
 
  Please try using the same indenting levels and bracing method as all the
  other code already does. It makes the source code a lot easier to follow if
  all of it is written using the same style. We don't ask you to like it, we
- just ask you to follow the tradition! ;-)
+ just ask you to follow the tradition! ;-) This mainly means: 2-level indents,
+ using spaces only (no tabs) and having the opening brace ({) on the same line
+ as the if() or while().
 
 Commenting
 
- Comment your source code extensively. Commented code is quality code and
- enables future modifications much more. Uncommented code much more risk being
+ Comment your source code extensively using C comments (/* comment */), do not
+ use C++ comments (// this style). Commented code is quality code and enables
+ future modifications much more. Uncommented code much more risk being
  completely replaced when someone wants to extend things, since other persons'
  source code can get quite hard to read.
 
@@ -69,6 +75,13 @@ Non-clobbering All Over
  functionality, try writing it in a new source file. If you fix bugs, try to
  fix one bug at a time and send them as separate patches.
 
+Platform Dependent Code
+
+ Use #ifdef HAVE_FEATURE to do conditional code. We avoid checking for
+ particular operting systems or hardware in the #ifdef lines. The HAVE_FEATURE
+ shall be generated by the configure script for unix-like systems and they are
+ hard-coded in the config-[system].h files for the others.
+
 Separate Patches Doing Different Things
 
  It is annoying when you get a huge patch from someone that is said to fix 511
@@ -94,6 +107,10 @@ Document
  small description of your fix or your new features with every contribution so
  that it can be swiftly added to the package documentation.
 
+ The documentation is always made in man pages (nroff formatted) or plain
+ ASCII files. All HTML files on the web site and in the release archives are
+ generated from the nroff/ASCII versions.
+
 Write Access to CVS Repository
 
  If you are a frequent contributor, or have another good reason, you can of