Improve README

We're going to be adding additional badges to this but, before we do
that, we should improve the README and remove a lot of the duplication
that has built up here.

The 'long_description' from 'setup.py' is moved into the README as there
is serious value in displaying this on GitHub, as much as there is value
in including the badges and other content from README.

Signed-off-by: Stephen Finucane <stephen@that.guru>

1 files changed, 63 insertions, 52 deletions

diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 1e027ec8e..54493bb8b 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+========
+ Sphinx
+========
+
 .. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/sphinx.svg
    :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Sphinx
 .. image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/sphinx/badge/
@@ -6,40 +10,81 @@
 .. image:: https://travis-ci.org/sphinx-doc/sphinx.svg?branch=master
    :target: https://travis-ci.org/sphinx-doc/sphinx
 
-=================
-README for Sphinx
-=================
+Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful
+documentation for Python projects (or other documents consisting of multiple
+reStructuredText sources), written by Georg Brandl.  It was originally created
+for the new Python documentation, and has excellent facilities for Python
+project documentation, but C/C++ is supported as well, and more languages are
+planned.
+
+Sphinx uses reStructuredText as its markup language, and many of its strengths
+come from the power and straightforwardness of reStructuredText and its parsing
+and translating suite, the Docutils.
+
+Among its features are the following:
+
+* Output formats: HTML (including derivative formats such as HTML Help, Epub
+  and Qt Help), plain text, manual pages and LaTeX or direct PDF output
+  using rst2pdf
+* Extensive cross-references: semantic markup and automatic links
+  for functions, classes, glossary terms and similar pieces of information
+* Hierarchical structure: easy definition of a document tree, with automatic
+  links to siblings, parents and children
+* Automatic indices: general index as well as a module index
+* Code handling: automatic highlighting using the Pygments highlighter
+* Flexible HTML output using the Jinja 2 templating engine
+* Various extensions are available, e.g. for automatic testing of snippets
+  and inclusion of appropriately formatted docstrings
+* Setuptools integration
+
+For more information, refer to the `the documentation`__.
+
+__ http://www.sphinx-doc.org/
+
+Installation
+============
 
-This is the Sphinx documentation generator, see http://www.sphinx-doc.org/.
+Sphinx is published on `PyPI`__ and can be installed from there::
 
+   pip install -U sphinx
 
-Installing
-==========
+We also publish beta releases::
 
-Install from PyPI to use stable version::
+   pip install -U --pre sphinx
 
-   pip install -U sphinx
+If you wish to install `Sphinx` for development purposes, refer to `the
+contributors guide`__.
 
-Install from PyPI to use beta version::
+__ https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Sphinx
+__ CONTRIBUTING.rst
 
-   pip install -U --pre sphinx
+Documentation
+=============
 
-Install from newest dev version in stable branch::
+Documentation is available from `sphinx-doc.org`__.
 
-   pip install git+https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx@stable
+__ http://www.sphinx-doc.org/
 
-Install from newest dev version in master branch::
+Testing
+=======
 
-   pip install git+https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx
+Continuous testing is provided by `Travis`__ (for unit tests and style checks
+on Linux), `AppVeyor`__ (for unit tests on Windows), and `CircleCI`__ (for
+large processes like TeX compilation).
 
-Install from cloned source::
+For information on running tests locally, refer to `the contributors guide`__.
 
-   pip install .
+__ https://travis-ci.org/sphinx-doc/sphinx
+__ https://ci.appveyor.com/project/sphinxdoc/sphinx
+__ https://circleci.com/gh/sphinx-doc/sphinx
+__ CONTRIBUTING.rst
 
-Install from cloned source as editable::
+Contributing
+============
 
-   pip install -e .
+Refer to `the contributors guide`_.
 
+__ CONTRIBUTING.rst
 
 Release signatures
 ==================
@@ -48,37 +93,3 @@ Releases are signed with following keys:
 
 * `498D6B9E <https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x102C2C17498D6B9E>`_
 * `5EBA0E07 <https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x1425F8CE5EBA0E07>`_
-
-Reading the docs
-================
-
-You can read them online at <http://www.sphinx-doc.org/>.
-
-Or, after installing::
-
-   cd doc
-   make html
-
-Then, direct your browser to ``_build/html/index.html``.
-
-Testing
-=======
-
-To run the tests with the interpreter available as ``python``, use::
-
-    make test
-
-If you want to use a different interpreter, e.g. ``python3``, use::
-
-    PYTHON=python3 make test
-
-Continuous testing runs on travis: https://travis-ci.org/sphinx-doc/sphinx
-
-
-Contributing
-============
-
-See `CONTRIBUTING.rst`__
-
-.. __: CONTRIBUTING.rst
-