readme: update and renew

* README: Remove stale or now-obvious description and advices.
Add reference to the INSTALL file.  Some minor rewordings.

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 19 deletions

diff --git a/README b/README
index 0396ff3b7..e95585774 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,35 +1,33 @@
-This is Automake, a Makefile generator.  It was inspired by the 4.4BSD
-make and include files, but aims to be portable and to conform to the
-GNU Coding Standards for Makefile variables and targets.
+This is Automake, a Makefile generator.  It aims to be portable and
+to conform to the GNU Coding Standards for Makefile variables and
+targets.
+
+See the INSTALL file for detailed information about how to configure
+and install Automake.
 
 Automake is a Perl script.  The input files are called Makefile.am.
 The output files are called Makefile.in; they are intended for use
 with Autoconf.  Automake requires certain things to be done in your
 configure.ac.
 
-Variable assignment lines in Makefile.am pull in defaults from various
-little *.am files.
-
-To use Automake, replace your Makefile.in files with Makefile.am
-files.  Read the documentation to see what to do.
-
-This package also includes the "aclocal" program.  aclocal is a
-program to generate an `aclocal.m4' based on the contents of
-`configure.ac'.  It is useful as an extensible, maintainable mechanism
-for augmenting autoconf.  It is intended that other package authors
-will write m4 macros which can be automatically used by aclocal.
-
-Automake has a test suite.  Use
+Automake comes with extensive documentation; please refer to it for
+more details about its purpose, features, and usage patterns.
 
-	make check
+This package also includes the "aclocal" program, whose purpose is
+to generate an 'aclocal.m4' based on the contents of 'configure.ac'.
+It is useful as an extensible, maintainable mechanism for augmenting
+autoconf.  It is intended that other package authors will write m4
+macros which can be automatically used by aclocal.  The documentation
+for aclocal is currently found in the Automake manual.
 
-to run it.  For more information, see the file tests/README.
+Automake has a test suite.  Use "make check" to run it.  For more
+information, see the file tests/README.
 
 Automake has a page on the web.  See:
 
 	http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/
 
-Automake also has three mailing lists:
+Automake has also three mailing lists:
 
   * automake@gnu.org
     For general discussions of Automake and its interactions with other