Advice on writing packages please

[marcuirl]

Hey all,

I am just about ready to start writing an emacs package of my
own. Some of the ones I have to use just don't do it for me anymore!
So at least I have a source to work from.

I have reasonable programming skills, though little in lisp ;-) so I
gain two skills from this! The questions I have:

Is there a source of info on the web that I can use to help in writing
major modes for emacs?

What advice would you guys/gals give an enthusiastic newbie to this
field?

Then also some ideas on really basic stuff like:

When editing an xx.el file for mode xx do you need to keep starting a
new emacs session for the changes to take effect? Is there an easier
way to do this?

This latter question is to help me get a foot in the door, I have
nobody here to help with the really really basic stuff like that,
getting over this hurdle would be a huge progress for me. Remember
those days long ago when you had no idea what to do with an 'hello.c'
file and your nerdy friend showed you how? Stuff like that!

Any help much appreciated!

marcu
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