How to get started with pfSense package building

[minus]

Kind of a dumb question I guess, but I'm having some trouble figuring out what the barrier between pfSense packages and ports packages are. From what I can tell, pfSense packages are the xml required for the interface + the ports packages they are designed to configure. Is this all? Also, I can't seem to find a guide or any information AT ALL on how exactly to get started with building said packages, or getting them upstreamed. I ask because there are a lot of great packages already available, but most are really dated and could be updated to more stable version quite simply by rebuilding the packages with newer releases. Sooo…any help?

[Perry]

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Creating_Your_Own_Package_Repository
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Developing_Packages
http://devwiki.pfsense.org/PfSenseDevHome