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+Contributing to MrsWatson
+=========================
+
+Submitting a Patch
+------------------
+
+So perhaps you've found a bug in MrsWatson, or maybe even added a new
+feature which you would like to see merged into the codebase. Great!
+Patches are happily accepted into the project, provided they meet the
+following conditions:
+
+* The [test suite][1] still passes with 100% success rate
+  - Also, you get big bonus points for adding new tests, both in the case
+    of bugfixes or new features.
+  - The test suite is also run through [valgrind][5] and must not leak any
+    resources or overwrite memory boundaries. As valgrind only runs well on
+    Linux, you may ask for valgrind verification in your pull request if
+    you do not have access to a Linux machine/VM.
+* The code is properly formatted, and meets the project's style and
+  readability conventions.
+* In the case of a new feature, it provides something which is useful to
+  the broader community.
+
+Regarding the last point, niche features which are only likely to be used by
+yourself should not be submitted to the codebase. Since the code is
+open-source, you are free to maintain a fork with whatever crazy features
+you like and pull from upstream.
+
+Lastly, it should be noted that patches are *only* accepted via GitHub on
+the [project's official homepage][4]. Patches sent as diffs over email,
+with carrier pigeons, etc., will be asked to resubmit as pull requests over
+GitHub. This is because GitHub offers code review and public visibility of
+the merge process.
+
+
+Coding Style Conventions
+------------------------
+
+MrsWatson is indented in [K&R style][2], with the addition of the 1TBS
+convention for function declarations. This style has been chosen for its
+widespread familiarity and good readability. Indentation width is 4 spaces
+(no tabs). Camel-casing is used for class and variable names, with
+uppercase used for types and lowercase for instances.
+
+You can use the [astyle][3] program to format your additions to MrsWatson.
+Please run the script `scripts/format-code.sh` from the project's top-level
+directory before submitting any pull requests.
+
+
+Coding Conventions
+------------------
+
+MrsWatson is written in C, although there is a small amount of C++ code
+used to communicate with VST plug-ins. Please do not expand the amount of
+C++ code in the project unless strictly necessary (and the same goes for
+other languages such as Obj-C).
+
+That said, MrsWatson uses a python-like meta-class structure which you
+should adhere to. Also, long and readable names are preferred (which is in
+contrast to much C code on the internet).
+
+
+Meta-Classes
+------------
+
+Classes in MrsWatson are simple structs with some associated functions that
+are able to operate on them. A naming convention is used to associate the
+class with the associated functions. Each of these functions takes in a
+"self" argument as its first parameter, just like in Python. Also like
+Python, there are no private members in the structs, so a leading underscore
+is used to indicate that a member should not be directly accessed.
+
+Instead of passing raw pointers throughout the source code, typedefs are
+used to make the code easier to understand. Thus, a sample class might look
+like this:
+
+    typedef struct {
+        int foo;
+        char _bar;
+        char* baz;
+    } MyClassMembers;
+    typedef MyClassMembers* MyClass;
+
+Each class should provide a constructor function and a destructor function
+so that the caller does not need to manually allocate and free the
+associated memory. By convention, these functions should be prefixed with
+"new" and "free". Continuing our example:
+
+    MyClass newMyClass(void)
+    {
+        MyClass result = (MyClass)malloc(sizeof(MyClassMembers));
+        result->foo = 0;
+        result->_bar = 'a';
+        result->baz = NULL;
+        return result;
+    }
+
+    void freeMyClass(MyClass self)
+    {
+        if (self != NULL) {
+            free(self->baz);
+            free(self);
+        }
+    }
+
+Any member functions for this class should begin with the class name. This
+begins to get a little verbose, but at least it makes the code easy to
+understand. Continuing our example:
+
+    char myClassGetBar(MyClass self)
+    {
+        return self->_bar;
+    }
+
+    size_t myClassBazLength(MyClass self)
+    {
+        return self->baz != NULL ? strlen(self->baz) : 0;
+    }
+
+The result is a convention that allows one to write code like this:
+
+    MyClass whatever = newMyClass();
+    if(myClassBazLength(whatever)) {
+        char ch = myClassGetBar(whatever);
+    }
+    freeMyClass(whatever);
+
+
+[1]: TESTING.md
+[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indent_style#K.26R_style
+[3]: http://astyle.sourceforge.net/astyle.html
+[4]: https://github.com/teragonaudio/MrsWatson
+[5]: http://valgrind.org/