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+Contributing to Inkscape
+========================
+
+Inkscape welcomes your contributions to help turn it into a fully
+SVG-compliant drawing program for the Open Source community.
+
+While many developers work on fixing bugs and creating new features, it
+is worth strong emphasis that even non-programmers can help make
+Inkscape more powerful and successful. You probably already have an idea
+of something you'd like to work on. If not, here are just a few ways you
+can help:
+
+   * Pick a bug, fix it, and send in a merge request on GitLab.
+   * Choose a feature you want to see developed, and make it.
+   * If you speak a language in addition to English, work on your
+     language's i18n file in the po/ directory.
+   * Find a new bug and report it.
+   * Help answer questions for new Inkscapers on IRC, forum, or the
+     mailing lists.
+   * Write an article advocating Inkscape.
+   * Author a HOWTO describing a trick or technique you've figured out.
+
+
+GIT Access
+----------
+
+Inkscape is currently developed on git, with the code hosted on GitLab.
+
+ * https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape
+
+We give write access out to people with proven interest in helping develop
+the codebase. Proving your interest is straightforward:  Make two
+contributions and request access.
+
+Compiling the development version
+---------------------------------
+
+See http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingInkscape for general
+remarks about compiling, including how to find some of the needed packages for
+your distribution, and suggestions for developers.
+
+
+Patch Decisions
+---------------
+
+Our motto for changes to the codebase is "Patch first, ask questions
+later". When someone has an idea, rather than endlessly debating it, we
+encourage folks to go ahead and code something up (even prototypish).
+This is then incorporated into the development branch of the code for
+folks to try out, poke and prod, and tinker with. We figure, the best
+way to see if an idea fits is to try it on for size.
+
+
+Coding Style
+------------
+
+Please refer to the Coding Style Guidelines
+(https://inkscape.org/en/develop/coding-style/) if you have specific questions
+on the style to use for code. If reading style guidelines doesn't interest
+you, just follow the general style of the surrounding code, so that it is at
+least consistent.
+
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+Code needs to be documented. Future Inkscape developers will really
+appreciate this. New files should have one or two lines describing the
+purpose of the code inside the file.
+
+
+Building
+--------
+
+This is the best set of instructions for setting up your build directory...
+
+You should install ninja and ccache for the fastest build:
+
+```bash
+sudo apt-get install ninja-build ccache
+```
+
+Next we prepare a build directory with a symlink to Inkscape's share folder, add a profile dir and set the bin folder (optional):
+
+```bash
+ln -s share share/inkscape
+mkdir -p build/conf
+cd build
+export INKSCAPE_PROFILE_DIR=$PWD/conf
+PATH=$PWD/bin/:$PATH
+```
+
+Now we invoke cmake, letting it know to use our new build directory prefix, ccache and the Ninja compiler:
+
+```bash
+cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=$PWD/../ -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -G Ninja ..
+```
+
+Invoke ninja to build the code. You may also use plain gcc's `make` if you didn't specific `-G` in the command above:
+```bash
+ninja
+```
+
+Now we can run `inkscape` that we have built, with the latest resources and code:
+
+```bash
+./bin/inkscape
+```
+
+Testing
+-------
+
+Before landing a patch, the unit tests should pass.
+
+See: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CMake#Using_CMake_to_run_tests