First pass at CONTRIBUTING

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# Contributing Guidelines
+
+Contributions are very welcome! To hack on the github version, clone the
+repository. You can use `cabal`:
+
+```shell
+./scripts/start-sandbox.sh # Initialize the sandbox and add-source the packages
+./scripts/test-all.sh      # Run all the tests
+```
+
+`stack`:
+
+```shell
+stack build    # Install and build packages
+stack test     # Run all the tests
+```
+
+Or `nix`:
+```shell
+./scripts/generate-nix-files.sh   # Get up-to-date shell.nix files
+```
+
+
+## General
+
+Some things we like:
+
+- Explicit imports
+- Upper and lower bounds for packages
+- Few dependencies
+- -Werror-compatible
+
+Though we aren't sticklers for style, the `.stylish-haskell.yaml` and `HLint.hs`
+files in the repository provide a good baseline for consistency.
+
+Please include a description of the changes in your PR in the `CHANGELOG.md` of
+the packages you've changed. And of course, write tests!
+
+## PR process
+
+We require two +1 from the maintainers of the repo. If you feel like there has
+not been a timely response to a PR, you can ping the Maintainers group (with
+`@Maintainers`).
+
+## New combinators
+
+We encourage people to experiment with new combinators and instances - it is
+one of the most powerful ways of using `servant`, and a wonderful way of
+getting to know it better. If you do write a new combinator, we would love to
+know about it! Either hop on #servant on freenode and let us know, or open an
+issue with the `news` tag (which we will close when we read it).
+
+As for adding them to the main repo: maintaining combinators can be expensive,
+since official combinators must have instances for all classes (and new classes
+come along fairly frequently). We therefore have to be quite selective about
+those that we accept. If you're considering writing a new combinator, open an
+issue to discuss it first!
+
+
+## New classes
+
+The main benefit of having a new class and package in the main servant repo is
+that we get to see via CI whether changes to other packages break the build.
+Open an issue to discuss whether a package should be added to the main repo. If
+we decide that it can, you can still keep maintainership over it.
+
+Whether or not you want your package to be in the repo, create an issue with
+the `news` label if you make a new package so we can know about it!
+
+## Release policy
+
+We are currently moving to a more aggresive release policy, so that you can get
+what you contribute from Hackage fairly soon. However, note that prior to major
+releases it may take some time in between releases. If you think you're change
+is small enough that you should be backported to released major versions, say
+so in the issue or PR.

README.md

@@ -17,29 +17,4 @@ list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/haskell-servant).
 
 ## Contributing
 
-Contributions are very welcome! To hack on the github version, clone the
+See `CONTRIBUTING.md`
-repository. You can use `cabal`:
-
-```shell
-./scripts/start-sandbox.sh # Initialize the sandbox and add-source the packages
-./scripts/test-all.sh      # Run all the tests
-```
-
-`stack`:
-
-```shell
-stack build    # Install and build packages
-stack test     # Run all the tests
-```
-
-Or `nix`:
-```shell
-./scripts/generate-nix-files.sh   # Get up-to-date shell.nix files
-```
-
-Though we aren't sticklers for style, the `.stylish-haskell.yaml` and `HLint.hs`
-files in the repository provide a good baseline for consistency.
-
-Please include a description of the changes in your PR in the `CHANGELOG.md` of
-the packages you've changed. And of course, write tests!
-