Renamed README to README.md and updated with markdown tags

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+What is LessCSS4j?
+------------------
+
+LessCSS4j is a java implementation of the LESS language (http://lesscss.org).
+This version has all of the features of the original plus a few additional
+features:
+
+* Support for Internet Explorer CSS oddities without the need for escaping
+* Pluggable architecture to allow additional functions and transformations
+  to be provided.
+* Optional Spring integration
+* Optional Servlet API integration
+
+History
+-------
+
+The original implementation of Less was written in Ruby.  This turned out to to
+run much too slowly for our purposes when run using JRuby. To solve this
+problem, LessCSS4j was written.
+
+While Less has since been reimplemented (less.js) in JavaScript and performs
+much better (Using NodeJS), there is still is a need for a Java version to ease
+the integration with existing web frameworks.
+
+
+Licensing
+---------
+
+See LICENSE for more information
+
+
+Command Line Usage
+------------------
+
+LESS files can be compiled on the command line using the following:
+
+    $ jlessc.sh myfile.less
+
+This will produce the file `myfile.css` in the same directory as `myfile.less`.
+
+An optional output filename may be provided. If the output filename is `-`, the
+output is written to standard out.
+
+Use the `--help` or `-h` option for all of the options accepted.
+
+
+Servlet Usage
+-------------
+
+LessCSS4j provides a servlet to perform runtime compilation of LESS files.  To
+use it, add the following servlet to your `web.xml` file (shown with the default
+init parameter values):
+
+    <servlet>
+        <servlet-name>LessCssServlet</servlet-name>
+        <servlet-class>org.lesscss4j.servlet.LessCssServlet</servlet-class>
+        <init-param>
+            <!-- The amount of time to cache the compiled Less file
+                 -1 = cache forever -->
+            <param-name>cacheMilliseconds</param-name>
+            <param-value>-1</param-value>
+        </init-param>
+        <init-param>
+            <!-- The amount of time the browser should cache the resulting
+                 CSS file -->
+            <param-name>httpCacheMilliseconds</param-name>
+            <param-value>900000</param-value>
+        </init-param>
+        <init-param>
+            <!-- If set to 'true', the resulting CSS will be formatted. Otherwise
+                 the resulting CSS is minified -->
+            <param-name>prettyPrint</param-name>
+            <param-value>false</param-value>
+        </init-param>
+    </servlet>
+
+    <servlet-mapping>
+        <servlet-name>LessCssServlet</servlet-name>
+        <url-pattern>/less/*</url-pattern>
+    </servlet-mapping>
+
+With this configuration, a request for the url `/less/path/to/file.less` will
+look for the file `/path/to/file.less` in the servlet context, compile it using
+the LessCSS4j compiler and return the resulting CSS.  In addition, the result
+is optionally cached to avoid recompilation.
+
+Embedded Compiler Usage
+-----------------------
+
+The easiest way to embed the LessCSS compiler is shown in the following code
+snippet:
+
+    StyleSheetResource resource = new FileStyleSheetResource(filename);
+    LessCssCompiler compiler = new DefaultLessCssCompilerFactory().create();
+    compiler.compile(resource, System.out, null);
+
+
+Spring Integration
+------------------
+
+To embed the LessCSS compiler using the Spring Framework, several classes have
+been provided in the org.localmatters.lesscss4j.spring package:
+
+* `LessCssCompilerFactoryBean`
+
+    FactoryBean implementation derived from DefaultLessCssCompilerFactory that
+    allows the compiler to be configured via standard Spring XML wiring.
+
+* `SpringStyleSheetResourceLoader`
+* `SpringStyleSheetResource`
+
+    Adapter classes that wrap Spring ResourceLoader and Resource
+    implementations, respectively.
+