Merge pull request #7 from csmith/readme

Start work on a README.

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+DMDirc
+================================================================================
+
+DMDirc is an IRC client written in Java. It's cross-platform, hugely
+configurable, and is easily extensible with a robust plugins system.
+
+This repository doesn't actually contain the source for DMDirc. Instead it's
+split over four different components, each with their own repository:
+
+* [client](https://github.com/DMDirc/client):
+  contains the main guts of the client
+* [parser](https://github.com/DMDirc/parser):
+  an interface for parsers and a full IRC parser
+* [plugins](https://github.com/DMDirc/plugins):
+  official plugins, including the main UI
+* [util](https://github.com/DMDirc/util):
+  general purpose utility classes not directly related to IRC
+
+Each of the repositories can be worked on and built independently of all the
+others (and we've paid particular care to make sure the parser and util projects
+can be dropped in to other applications with the minimum of fuss).  If you
+actually want to develop the client, though, it's a lot easier if they're all
+together — that's what this repository is for! Each of the components mentioned
+above is included as a submodule, and there are some handy top-level build
+scripts for bundling everything together.
+
+Getting Started
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+First off, clone this repository and init the submodules:
+
+    git clone https://github.com/DMDirc/Meta.git
+    cd Meta
+    git submodule update --init --remote
+
+You can then use the provided gradle wrapper to start a build, or run all the
+tests in the project:
+
+    ./gradlew jar
+    ./gradlew test
+
+[Currently the gradle scripts do not generate a functioning client... we're
+ working on that still!]