how to get started with developing grub2

[Richard Retanubun]

Greetings,

I am getting started with developing grub2 (v1.96 from debian stable) to port 
some grub1 custom modifications
that was done on the existing products and well, I'm a bit lost.

I followed this patch thread to learn how to add a new command

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2009-04/msg00152.html

So I ported that patch to v1.96 and run configure, make and make install (and 
got stuff in /usr/local)

then I go to /usr/local/bin and run grub-mkimage -o mycore.img (it it supposed 
to make a new /boot/grub/core.img?)
then I noticed the size of the binary is smaller (/boot/grub/core.img is 24275; 
mine is 18242)

So what am I missing and how can I install my custom grub2 with the new/custom 
modules on top of
my existing grub2 (still chainloading from grub1)

Apologies if this has been asked before, can't seem to find it in the mailing 
list.
If there is any docs written on these topics somewhere, kindly point me to it.

Thank you for everyone's time.

- Richard