Scripting/coding style has been discussed before. To use ${pkgver} instead of $pkgver is due to consistency. Technically, the braces enable one to append to variables eg. ${pkgver}alpha. Another camp would like double-quotes as well. If you remember, the reason for quotes on ${src,pkg}dir is the fact that no one knows which bloke keeps his local build dir named with spaces. To KIS, "# Maintainer:" for binary maintainer and "# Contributor:" for the following: * A submitter of a package. * A _significant_ contributor to the content of the buildscripts including the PKGBUILD -- so how would one define "significant"? well, it's up to you. If a person does not own a package but has contributed a good deal to it via other means (comments on AUR), the owner _may_ choose to add that person to the list as well. It's not supposed to be a big deal, so long as there's a way to contact someone.