converted readme to markdown

README.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+## CouchRest - CouchDB, close to the metal
+
+CouchRest is based on [CouchDB's couch.js test library](http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/couchdb/trunk/share/www/script/couch.js), which I find to be concise, clear, and well designed. CouchRest lightly wraps CouchDB's HTTP API, managing JSON serialization, and remembering the URI-paths to CouchDB's API endpoints so you don't have to.
+
+CouchRest's lighweight is designed to make a simple base for application and framework-specific object oriented APIs.
+
+### Easy Install
+
+`sudo gem install jchris-couchdb -s http://gems.github.com`
+
+### Relax, it's RESTful
+
+The core of Couchrest is Heroku’s excellent REST Client Ruby HTTP wrapper. REST Client takes all the nastyness of Net::HTTP and gives is a pretty face, while still giving you more control than Open-URI. I recommend it anytime you’re interfacing with a well-defined web service. 
+
+### Running the Specs
+
+The most complete documentation is the spec/ directory. To validate your CouchRest install, from the project root directory run `rake`, or `autotest` (requires RSpec and optionally ZenTest for autotest support). 
+
+### Examples
+
+Quick Start:
+
+    # with !, it creates the database if it doesn't already exist
+    @db = CouchRest.database!("http://localhost:5984/couchrest-test")
+    response = @db.save({:key => 'value', 'another key' => 'another value'})
+    doc = @db.get(response['id'])
+    puts doc.inspect
+
+Bulk Save:
+
+    @db.bulk_save([
+        {"wild" => "and random"},
+        {"mild" => "yet local"},
+        {"another" => ["set","of","keys"]}
+      ])
+    # returns ids and revs of the current docs
+    puts @db.documents.inspect 
+
+Creating and Querying Views:
+
+    @db.save({
+      "_id" => "_design/first", 
+      :views => {
+        :test => {
+          :map => "function(doc){for(var w in doc){ if(!w.match(/^_/))emit(w,doc[w])}}"
+          }
+        }
+      })
+    puts @db.view('first/test')['rows'].inspect 
+
+