Add some more documentation to README.

1 files changed, 29 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README b/README
index 93ccd6e..6a69374 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -38,6 +38,35 @@ Example
 See the file `example.py` for an example of how to use the framework.
 
 
+Walkthrough
+-----------
+
+Every application should be a class that subclasses `cliapp.Application`.
+The subclass should provide specific methods. Read the documentation
+for the `cliapp.Application` class to see all methods, but a rough
+summary is here:
+
+* the `settings` attribute is the `cliapp.Settings` instance used by
+  the application
+* override `add_settings` to add new settings for the application
+* override `process_*` methods to override various stages in how
+  arguments and input files are processed
+* override `process_args` to decide how each argument is processed;
+  by default, this called `process_inputs`
+* `process_inputs` calls `process_input` (note singular) for each 
+  argument, or on `-` to process standard input if no files are named
+  on the command line
+* `process_input` calls `open_input` to open each file, then calls
+  `process_input_line` for each input line
+* `process_input_line` does nothing, by default
+
+This cascade of overrideable methods is started by the `run`
+method, which also sets up logging, loads configuration files,
+parses the command line, and handles reporting of exceptions.
+It can also run the rest of the code under the Python profiler,
+if the appropriate environment variable is set.
+
+
 Legalese
 --------