> I'll say it again, the devguide should be short enough to be practical for someone learning to contribute.

Better organization could help here.  I could see the devguide being a combination of (1) a brief document meant to be read cover to cover that captures the minimum one needs to know (as well as describing what else is available in the guide), and (2) more detailed info that someone could read on an as-needed basis or that a core developer could link to if assisting someone on a certain point (like the point covered by this issue).

Currently, the devguide is harder to soak in because there is no boundary between (1) and (2).  A recent example is that I didn't know about the custom repo option until Antoine mentioned it in a comment -- even after having looked at many of the sections.  On the plus side, he was able to link to it with the current organization.