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2 files changed, 47 insertions, 84 deletions

diff --git a/documentation/building.md b/documentation/building.md
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--- a/documentation/building.md
+++ b/documentation/building.md
@@ -1,40 +1,48 @@
 # Building flow
-A complete build of flow involves two parts
-
- 1. compiling scala sources (as in a regular project)
- 2. compiling native sources
- 
-As any java or scala project, the first part results in a platform independant artifact. However, the second part yields a binary that may only be used on systems resembling the platform for which it was compiled. To understand how flow can achieve such a mix, it is helpful to look at the project's directory layout.
-
-    .
-    ├── documentation
-    ├── flow
-    │   └── src
-    │       └── main
-    │           ├── java
-    │           ├── native
-    │           └── scala
-    ├── flow-pack
-    │   └── lib_native
-    ├── flow-samples
-    └── project
-
-The directories of interest in a build are:
-
- - flow/src/main/scala and flow/src/main/java:
- Contains java/scala sources that constitute the main library.
- 
- - flow/src/main/native:
- Contains native sources used in combination with JNI to support interacting with serial hardware. The directory itself is subdivided into:
-   - include: general headers describing the native side of the serial API
-   - posix: source code implementing the native serial API for posix-compliant operating systems
-
-With this structure in mind, building a complete distribution of flow involves (sbt commands are given in code tags):
-
- 1. compiling and packaging java/scala sources: `flow/packageBin`
- This simply compiles any scala and java sources as with any standard sbt project and produces a jar ready for being used.
- 
- 2. compiling and linking native sources for various platforms: `flow/nativeLink`
- This is the most complicated and error-prone step in the build. It involves compiling and cross-compiling the native sources for various platforms and linking them.
- Note that for this step to work, native builds for the current operating system have to be defined. Take a look at the build file to see how this is done (below ```trait Host``` in the file).
- After completing this step, native libraries for the different platforms are available to be copied and included in end-user applications.
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+Flow can be divided into two layers: a scala front-end that wraps serial communication in an actor-style way, and a native back-end that actually enables the communication. These layers are loosely coupled, their only interaction being the JNI bindings generated by javah. As such, building flow may be decomposed into two independent steps.
+
+## Scala/Java front-end
+The front-end is compiled as any regular Scala project. It is managed by sbt and may be built by running `sbt flow/packageBin`, producing a jar ready to be included in any project.
+
+## Native back-end
+_Note: currently, the native build only supports Linux. However, the code is designed to be portable and should be able to compile on other Unix flavours (including Mac). Any contributions to the native build are highly welcome._
+
+All files related to the back-end are contained in `flow-native` and are managed by make. The build offers various options for compilation and installation, be sure to check the makefile for additional information. The following is a short, incomplete list of build possibilities:
+
+1.  Build shared library
+    Run `make all` to build a shared library, including any associated links. Be advised that the shared library doesn't quite use semantic versioning in that the major version is always kept at zero and instead appended to the name of the library, i.e. the semantic libflow.so.3.1.2 becomes libflow3.so.0.1.2. This deviation from semantic versioning is necessary since java does not permit loading libraries based on their soname.
+
+2.  Install shared library on system
+    Run `sudo make install` to install the compiled shared libraries on the local system.
+
+3.  Debian package build
+    A debian binary package can be built the standard way by navigating to the build directory and running `debuild` or `dpkg-buildpackage`. The resulting packages are created in this project's root directory and can be installed with `sudo dpkg -i *.deb`.
+
+Note that for compiling, the JAVA_HOME environment variable must be set. Furthermore, the JNI include directories are currently set in the makefile to point to the default location of a Java 7 Oracle installation on Debian.
+
+# Using flow
+As is with the build, using flow in a project can also be divided into two parts.
+
+## Front-end
+In your scala/java application, treat flow as if it were a pure scala/java library and build your application with flow as a usual dependency. When using sbt to build your application, you can add flow as a dependency with the following line:
+
+    libraryDependencies += "com.github.jodersky" %% "flow" % "2.0.0"
+
+## Back-end
+When running your application or any other application that relies on it, the native library must be included in java's library path. To do so, you have several options depending on the type of build you performed (see previous section).
+
+### Manual or package-based installation
+You are done. If you performed steps 2 or 3 from the native build instructions, the library has been installed in a place that is checked by the jvm when loading flow.
+
+### Only shared library
+If you only built or downloaded a precompiled library (without installing it), you can choose how to include it:
+-  Per application:
+    -  Run java with the command-line option -Djava.library.path="\<folder containing library\>". For example, if the native library is in the current directory, ```java -Djava.library.path="." -jar your-app.jar```
+    -  Run your program by prepending LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<folder containing libflow.so> to the command. E.g ```LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<folder containing libflow.so> java -jar your-app.jar```
+
+-  System- or user-wide:
+    - Copy the library to a place that is on the default java library path and run your application normally. Such places usually include /usr/lib.
+
+
+# Precompiled binaries
+Precompiled versions of the native back-end are available for download in the releases of the github project.
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diff --git a/documentation/embedded-building.md b/documentation/embedded-building.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 36f5ba2..0000000
--- a/documentation/embedded-building.md
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@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-# Locally building on an embedded device
-Setting up cross-compilation on your host machine can be quite a daunting task, it involves installing and maybe even compiling other compilers and toolchains. The advantage of doing so is that you can easily build flow for different platforms at once and for systems that may not have the required resources to run sbt. However, if you are only targeting one specific platform that has the ability to run a C compiler and linker you can still build flow without the use of sbt.
-
-## Requirements
-- a target platform that has enough resources for compiling native programs
-- a host platform that can run SBT
-
-## Overview of required steps
-1. Compile native sources on target platform to a library
-2. Compile scala/java sources on host
-3. Use the compiled library with the scala/java application
-
-## Detailed procedure
-This section details the procedure for linux-based target platforms.
-
-1. Compilation of native sources [on the target platform]
-
-    a. Find where the jni include directory is. If you are using a recent oracle java distribution this would typically be /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/include/ and /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/include/linux
-
-    b. cd to flow/src/main/native
-
-    c. Compile: ```gcc -O2 -fPIC -I./include/ -I/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/include/ -I/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/include/linux -o flow.o -c posix/flow.c``` (replace the -I options with the paths found in a)
-
-    d. Link: ```gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,libflow.so.2 -o libflow.so flow.o```
-
-    e. That's all for the native side, you have a shared library backing flow. Copy libflow.so to any location you wish (see below).
-
-2. Compilation of scala/java sources [on the host platform]
-
-    a. ```sbt compile```
-
-    b. ```sbt publishLocal``` or ```sbt package``` or however you wish to publish flow
-
-    c. That's all regarding the scala/java side, you have a build of flow that is ready to be included in your projects.
-
-3. Putting it all together. 
-
-    In your scala/java application, treat flow as if it were a pure scala/java library and build your application with flow as a usual dependency. However, when running your application or any other application that relies on it, the native library must be included in java's library path. To do so, you have several options:
-
-    - Per application:
-        - Run java with the command-line option -Djava.library.path="\<folder containing libflow.so\>". For example, if the native library is in the current directory, ```java -Djava.library.path="." -jar your-app.jar```
-        - Run your program by prepending LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<folder containing libflow.so> to the command. E.g ```LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<folder containing libflow.so> java -jar your-app.jar```
-
-    - System- or user-wide:
-        - Copy libflow.so to a place that is on the default java library path and run your application normally. Such places usually include /usr/lib.