===============================================================================
Program: libdoomwad
Version: 0.04
Date:    28 September 2004
Author:  John Gaughan
Email:   john@johngaughan.net
Web:     http://www.johngaughan.net/
         http://doom.johngaughan.net/libdoomwad.php



Please note that the below text reflects what libdoomwad will look like in the
final release version (1.0). Some features mentioned may be partially
implemented or just not implemented at all currently.



===============================================================================
Welcome to libdoomwad, a library that automates much of the grunt work involved
with managing data files for id Software's game Doom. This is just a library,
not a program, so if you are looking for a wad editor, look elsewhere.

Despite Doom being ten years old, quite a few people still play the game and
edit maps for it. I noticed that there is no robust library to manage the low
end gruntwork of reading and writing wads, converting binary data into C++
classes and structures for use in editors, etc. so I set out to write my own.
The result is libdoomwad, a cross-platform OS-neutral library to do all these
tasks.



===============================================================================
Features:
* Defines structures to represent most of the entries found in wad files.

* Defines a generic Lump class that abstracts a single entry of any type. It
handles memory allocation and provides a few useful functions.

* Wad class that abstracts a single wad file. Provides easy file extraction and
insertion.

* Consistently uses standard C++ exceptions to provide meaningful, verbose
error messages to aid in debugging and to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.



===============================================================================
libdoomwad is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This means
it open source. libdoomwad is Copyright (C) 2004 John Gaughan. My rights to the
software include exclusive ownership, and my responsibilities include ensuring
that the software is distributed free of charge and the source code is
available to everyone. As a user, your rights include the ability to modify it
and redistribute it as long as you perpetuate the terms of the license. If you
do, I ask that you give it a new name and clearly state that it is a derivative
work, with the original copyright belonging to me. See the file COPYING for
more information.

Please note that libdoomwad is licensed under the GPL, not the LGPL, meaning
nobody is allowed to link non-free software against it. If you choose to use
libdoomwad, your program must use a GPL-compatible license (including, of
course, the GPL itself). If you want to use it in non-free software, please
contact me. I may relicense it to you under the LGPL on a case by case basis.



===============================================================================
Files in this release:
CHANGELOG - list of changes in each version.
COPYING - GPL license.
INSTALL - installation instructions (including compiling).
README - this file.
TODO - details plans for the next version.
Makefile - instructions to "make" on how to compile libdoomwad.
doxy.conf - Doxygen configuration for generating code documentation.
*.cpp *.hpp - source code files.