readme overview

README.md

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 # ngen
-Build file generator (engine) for the [ninja build
+Build file generator (engine) for the [`ninja` build
 system](https://ninja-build.org/).
 
 Licensed under the GPLv3.
+
+## Methodology and Overview
+The problem with existing meta build systems---or makefile generators---like
+[Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/) and [CMake](https://cmake.org/) is that they
+are needlessly complex for small-to-medium-sized C/C++ projects. These projects
+are just large enough that hand-writing a makefile would be painful, but trying
+to configure a large meta build system would be just as painful. It is
+unacceptable that building a simple project with 10 .c files and a library
+requires knowledge of a unique, obscure configuration language which is
+constantly changing.
+
+*ngen* aims to make generating build files for these small C/C++ projects as
+simple as possible by using a basic key-value configuration file using patterns
+that any experienced programmer should be familiar with. In doing so, ngen
+fills the gap between writing your own makefile and wrangling with
+CMakeLists.txt. 
+
+ngen generates files for the [Ninja](https://ninja-build.org/) build system.
+Ninja is a small, modern build system that uses a bare-bones configuration
+language that is easy to both read and generate (but not necessarily easy to
+write by hand). "Where other build systems are high-level languages Ninja aims
+to be an assembler," according to Ninja's website. It can be thought of as a
+simpler, faster replacement for the classic `make`, . It is used by default by
+Meson; CMake can also be configured to use ninja as a backend.