minimal docs

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 cdec is a fast decoder.
 
- .. more coming ...
+SPEED COMPARISON
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Here is a comparison with a couple of other decoders:
+
+  Decoder  Lang.   BLEU    Run-Time        Memory
+  cdec     c++     31.47   0.37 sec/sent   1.0-1.1GB
+  Joshua   Java    31.55   2.34 sec/sent   4.0-4.8GB
+  Hiero    Python  31.22   27.2 sec/sent   1.7-1.9GB
+
+The maximum number of pops from candidate heap at each node is k=30, no other
+pruning, 3gm LM, Chinese-English translation task.
+
+
+GETTING STARTED
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+See the BUILDING file for instructions on how to build the software.  To
+explore the decoder's features, the best way to get started is to look
+at cdec's command line options or to have a look at the test cases in
+the tests/system_tests/ directory.  Each of these can be run with a command
+like ./cdec -c cdec.ini -i input.txt -w weights .  The files should be
+self explanatory.
+
+
+EXTRACTING A SYNCHRONOUS GRAMMAR / PHRASE TABLE
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+cdec does not include code for generating grammars.  To build these, you will
+need to write your own software or use an existing package like Joshua, Hiero,
+or Moses.
+
+
+OPTIMIZING / TRAINING MODELS
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+cdec does include code for optimizing models, according to a number of
+training criteria, including training models as CRFs (with latent derivation
+variables), MERT (over hypergraphs) to opimize BLEU, TER, etc.
+
+Eventually, I will provide documentation for this.
+
+
+ALIGNMENT / SYNCHRONOUS PARSING / CONSTRAINED DECODING
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+cdec can be used as an aligner.  For examples, see the test cases.
+
 
 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------