How to use template hooks?

[martin05rc]

Can someone point me to articles or a tutorial on how to use template hooks?

I have some code that I manually edited into a template right under an existing hook location. The code works well. Now I would like to take a different approach than the manual editing of files in order to make upgrades a lot easier to manage. My guess is that is done through template hooks.

Many questions:

Where do I put my code? Do I create a PHP file somewhere and point to it somehow?
How do I tell vB to go and use it?
Is this the best approach for making upgrading minor versions (say, 4.0.4 to 4.0.6) less painful?

Bigger question: Is there such a thing as good and reasonably complete developer tutorial/documentation for vB?

Thanks,

-Martin