From 034ae4ba94ea814c5e27f571e7b2695e70ceffcc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: nmlgc <nmlgc@nmlgc.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 16:51:43 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] [Contributing] Padding bytes should be rewritten into `even`
 or `align`

---
 CONTRIBUTING.md | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 311488f2..fc897521 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -55,6 +55,11 @@ binary, as compared using [mzdiff].** The only allowed exceptions are:
   (Counterexample: Small, insignificant amounts of pixels in e.g. entity
   movement code.)
 
+* Try rewriting `db 0` or `NOP` padding instructions in ASM land into `even`
+  or `align 2` directives. This makes mzdiffs a bit shorter in common cases
+  where a single byte was erroneously added somewhere, by providing a chance
+  for the code to catch up to its original byte positions.
+
 * Documenting function comments exclusively go into C/C++ header files, right
   above the corresponding function prototype, *not* into ASM slices.