Updating documentation on contributing code.

1 files changed, 32 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/SciCoding.html b/doc/SciCoding.html
index 2e6e211c7..c6dd39536 100644
--- a/doc/SciCoding.html
+++ b/doc/SciCoding.html
@@ -124,6 +124,8 @@
 	compilers on diverse platforms with high performance and low resource usage.
 	Scintilla has stricter portability requirements to SciTE as it may be ported to
 	low capability platforms.
+	Scintilla code must build with C++03 which can be checked with "g++ --std=gnu++03".
+	SciTE can use C++11 features that are widely available from g++ 4.6, MSVC 2012 and clang 3.4 compilers.
 	</p>
 	<p>
 	To achieve portability, only a subset of C++ features are used.
@@ -139,6 +141,10 @@
 	maintaining FORTRAN programs. The union feature is not used as it can lead to
 	non-type-safe value access.
 	</p>
+	<p>
+	The SCI_METHOD preprocessor definition should be used when implementing
+	interfaces which include it like ILexer and only there.
+	</p>
     <h3>
        Casting
     </h3>
@@ -255,5 +261,31 @@
 	<p>Ensure there are no warnings under the compiler you use. Warnings from other compilers
 	will be noted on the feature request.</p>
 	<p>sc.ch is an int: do not pass this around as a char.</p>
+	<p>The ctype functions like isalnum and isdigit only work on ASCII (0..127) and may cause
+	undefined behaviour including crashes if used on other values. Check with IsASCII before calling is*.</p>
+	<p>Functions, structs and classes in lexers should be in an unnamed namespace (see LexCPP)
+	or be marked "static" so they will not leak into other lexers.</p>
+	<p>If you copy from an existing lexer, remove any code that is not needed since it makes it
+	more difficult to maintain and review.</p>
+	<p>When modifying an existing lexer, try to maintain as much compatibility as possible.
+	Do not renumber lexical styles as current client code may be built against the earlier values.</p>
+    <h4>
+       Properties
+    </h4>
+	<p>
+	Properties provided by a new lexer should follow the naming conventions
+	and should include a comment suitable for showing to end users.
+	The convention is for properties that control styling to be named 
+	lexer.&lt;lexername&gt;.* and those that control folding to be named
+	fold.&lt;lexername&gt;.*.
+	Examples are "lexer.python.literals.binary" and "fold.haskell.imports".
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	The properties "fold" and "fold.comment" are generic and can be used by
+	any lexer.
+	</p>
+	<p>
+	See LexPython for examples of properties in an object lexer and LexHTML for a functional lexer.
+	</p>
   </body>
 </html>