Add CONTRIBUTING.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+
+# Contributing to QuantLib
+
+Thanks for considering a contribution!  We're looking forward to it.
+
+The preferred way to contribute is through a pull request on GitHub.
+This gives us some convenient tooling to look at your changes and
+provide feedback; also, opening a pull request triggers automated
+building and testing of your code and often gives you feedback before
+a human has a chance to look at it (the time we can give to the
+project is, unfortunately, limited).
+
+So, in short: get a GitHub account if you don't have it already and
+clone the repository at <https://github.com/lballabio/QuantLib> with
+the "Fork" button in the top right corner of the page.  Check out your
+clone to your machine, code away, push your changes to your clone and
+submit a pull request: links to more detailed instructions are at the
+end of this file.
+
+A note: a pull request will show any new changes committed and pushed
+to the corresponding branch.  For this reason, we strongly advise you
+to use a feature branch for your changes, instead of your `master`
+branch.  This gives you the freedom to add unrelated changes to your
+master, and also gives the maintainers the freedom to push further
+changes to the branch.
+
+It's likely that we won't merge your code right away, and we'll ask
+for some changes instead. Don't be discouraged! That's normal; the
+library is complex, and thus it might take some time to become
+familiar with it and to use it in an idiomatic way.
+
+Again, thanks &mdash; and welcome!  We're looking forward to your contributions.
+
+
+#### Useful links
+
+Instructions for forking a cloning a repository are at
+<https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo>.
+
+More detailed instructions for creating pull requests are at
+<https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests>.
+
+Finally, a basic guide to GitHub is at
+<https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/>.
+GitHub also provides interactive learning at <https://lab.github.com/>.

README.md

@@ -53,25 +53,6 @@ below).
 
 ## Contributing
 
-The preferred way to contribute is through pull requests on GitHub.
-Get a GitHub account if you don't have it already and clone the
-repository at <https://github.com/lballabio/QuantLib> with the "Fork"
-button in the top right corner of the page. Check out your clone to
-your machine, code away, push your changes to your clone and submit a
-pull request; instructions are available at
-<https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo>.
-
-In case you need them, more detailed instructions for creating pull
-requests are at
-<https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests>, and a basic
-guide to GitHub is at
-<https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/>.  GitHub also
-provides interactive learning at <https://lab.github.com/>.
-
-It's likely that we won't merge your code right away, and we'll ask
-for some changes instead. Don't be discouraged! That's normal; the
-library is complex, and thus it might take some time to become
-familiar with it and to use it in an idiomatic way.
-
-We're looking forward to your contributions.
+Contributions are very welcome!  Details are in
+[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/lballabio/QuantLib/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)