1 files changed, 50 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9d305b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# Uri
+
+This is a library which implements [RFC 3986](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986),
+"Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax".
+
+## Usage
+
+The `Uri::Uri` class is used to parse URIs from strings, render URIs as strings, and get or set the individual elements of a URI.
+
+## Supported platforms / recommended toolchains
+
+This is a portable C++11 library which depends only on the C++11 compiler and standard library, so it should be supported on almost any platform.  The following are recommended toolchains for popular platforms.
+
+* Windows -- [Visual Studio](https://www.visualstudio.com/) (Microsoft Visual C++)
+* Linux -- clang or gcc
+* MacOS -- Xcode (clang)
+
+## Building
+
+This library is not intended to stand alone.  It is intended to be included in a larger solution which uses [CMake](https://cmake.org/) to generate the build system and build applications which will link with the library.
+
+There are two distinct steps in the build process:
+
+1. Generation of the build system, using CMake
+2. Compiling, linking, etc., using CMake-compatible toolchain
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+* [CMake](https://cmake.org/) version 3.8 or newer
+* C++11 toolchain compatible with CMake for your development platform (e.g. [Visual Studio](https://www.visualstudio.com/) on Windows)
+
+### Build system generation
+
+Generate the build system using [CMake](https://cmake.org/) from the solution root.  For example:
+
+```bash
+mkdir build
+cd build
+cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -A "x64" ..
+```
+
+### Compiling, linking, etc.
+
+Either use [CMake](https://cmake.org/) or your toolchain's IDE to build.
+For [CMake](https://cmake.org/):
+
+```bash
+cd build
+cmake --build . --config Release
+```