* doc/contributing.rdoc: [DOC] Add notes about deciding what to patch

git-svn-id: svn+ssh://ci.ruby-lang.org/ruby/trunk@43899 b2dd03c8-39d4-4d8f-98ff-823fe69b080e

ChangeLog

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+Thu Nov 28 21:15:45 2013  Zachary Scott  <e@zzak.io>
+
+	* doc/contributing.rdoc: [DOC] Add notes about deciding what to patch
+
 Thu Nov 28 19:43:45 2013  Masaki Matsushita  <glass.saga@gmail.com>
 
 	* benchmark/bm_hash_flatten.rb: added. r43896 is about 4 times faster

doc/contributing.rdoc

@@ -272,6 +272,24 @@ Manual}[https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/rurema] in Japanese.
 
 == Contributing A Patch
 
+=== Deciding what to patch
+
+Before you submit a patch, there are a few things you should know:
+
+* Pay attention to the maintenance policy for stable and maintained versions of Ruby.
+* Released versions in security mode will not merge feature changes.
+* Search for previous discussions on ruby-core to verify the maintenance policy
+* Patches must be distributed under Ruby's license.
+* This license may change in the future, you must join the discussion if you don't agree to the change
+
+To improve the chance your patch will be accepted please follow these simple rules:
+
+* Bug fixes should be committed on trunk first
+* Format of the patch file must be a unified diff (ie: diff -pu, svn diff, or git diff)
+* Don't introduce cosmetic changes
+* Follow the original coding style of the code
+* Don't mix different changes in one commit
+
 First thing you should do is check out the code if you haven't already:
 
   git clone git://github.com/ruby/ruby.git ruby-trunk