Expand README.md with more setup steps

Among the things added is an introductory text, a server-setup guide, and 'watch'-instructions.

1 files changed, 41 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 84ed0e99..66013074 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,20 +1,52 @@
-# OpenDC Front End
-## Initial setup
+# OpenDC Frontend
+
+The OpenDC frontend is the user-facing component of the OpenDC stack, allowing users to build and interact with their own (virtual) datacenters. It is built in TypeScript, using CreateJS for canvas interactions and Gulp for build-automation.
+
+## Architecture
+[TODO]
+
+## Building Locally
+
+### Initial setup
+
+#### Setting up the server
+To be able to see the frontend run in your browser, first set up the web server. The steps needed for this are listed on [the `opendc-web-server` repo](https://github.com/atlarge-research/opendc-web-server).
+
+Once the web-server is set up, clone [this frontend-repo](https://github.com/atlarge-research/opendc-frontend.git) into the same base-directory as the repos you cloned during server setup:
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/atlarge-research/opendc-frontend.git
+```
+
+Change directory to that new directory, and you're ready to continue to the frontend setup steps below.
+
+#### Resolving dependencies
 We use the NPM package repository to manage our third-party dependencies on the frontend. To fetch and install these dependencies, you'll need to have the [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/) environment installed. 
 
 For easier fetching, we recommend the [Yarn Package Manager](https://yarnpkg.com), but the standard NPM tool will suffice, too. You can get your build setup installed by executing the following two commands:
 
-    $ npm install -g yarn
-    $ npm install -g gulp
-    
+```bash
+npm install -g yarn
+npm install -g gulp
+```
+   
 You may need to prepend these commands with `sudo`, if you are on a Debian-based Linux machine. If you're having trouble giving NPM the necessary permissions on such a machine, have a look at [this NPM documentation page](https://docs.npmjs.com/getting-started/fixing-npm-permissions).
 
-## Building the project
+### Building the project
 Run the following commands from this directory to fetch dependencies and compile the code of the frontend side:
 
-```
-$ yarn
-$ gulp --config=config.json
+```bash
+yarn
+gulp --config=config.json
 ```
 
 **Note:** You need to replace `config.json` with the name / path of a real config file. This config file can be created by making a copy of the `sample_config.json` template and replacing the entries with your setup data. Make sure not to check this new config file into the VCS, as it is unique to each deployment situation.
+
+### Developing locally
+To make development easier, we've set up a `watch` task. With this task, you can quickly see what effects a certain change has on the program. It runs in the background, automatically triggering a rebuild of relevant files on file-change.
+
+Start it by executing:
+
+```bash
+gulp watch --config=config.json
+```