backport pull requests #96 and #97 to 1.9 branch

(cherry picked from commit 30990f14f21621ee9a7c9bdb47af63bdcb23b59a)
backport doc changes from pull requests #98 (Stateful)  and #100 (conributor typo)

(cherry picked from commit 50d8753bd55160c47837281c864bad9e33d30f62)