diff --git a/doc/developer.xml b/doc/developer.xml
index 82fe791d9..054228657 100644
--- a/doc/developer.xml
+++ b/doc/developer.xml
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@
         </para>
       </listitem>
 
+      <listitem>
+        <para>
+          comment your code, document your APIs
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
       <listitem>
         <para>
           the code should be C++14 compliant, and must compile with
@@ -46,15 +52,35 @@
         </para>
       </listitem>
 
+      <listitem>
+        <para>
+          report error conditions with C++ exceptions, preferable
+          derived from <varname>std::runtime_error</varname>
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>
+          all code must be exception-safe
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>
+          classes and functions names use CamelCase; variables are
+          lower-case with words separated by underscore
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
       <listitem>
         <para>
           Some example code:
         </para>
 
         <programlisting lang="C">static inline int
-foo(const char *abc, int xyz)
+Foo(const char *abc, int xyz)
 {
-        if (abc == NULL) {
+        if (abc == nullptr) {
                 LogWarning("Foo happened!");
                 return -1;
         }