Updated README.md

README.md

@@ -1,20 +1,37 @@
 # Introduction 
-TODO: Give a short introduction of your project. Let this section explain the objectives or the motivation behind this project. 
+SymCrypt is the core cryptographic function library currently used by Windows.
 
-# Getting Started
-TODO: Guide users through getting your code up and running on their own system. In this section you can talk about:
-1.	Installation process
-2.	Software dependencies
-3.	Latest releases
-4.	API references
+## History
+The library was started in late 2006 with the first sources committed in Feb 2007.
+Initially the goal was limited to implement symmetric cryptographic operations, hence the name.
+Starting with Windows 8, it has been the primary crypto library for symmetric algorithms.
+
+In 2015 we started the work of adding asymmetric algorithms to SymCrypt. Since the 1703 release of Windows 10,
+SymCrypt has been the primary crypto library for all algorithms in Windows.
+
+## Goals
+Like any engineering project, SymCrypt is a compromise between conflicting requirements:
+- Provide safe implementations of the cryptographic algorithms needed by Microsoft products.
+- Run on all CPU architectures supported by Windows.
+- Good performance.
+- Minimize maintenance cost.
+- Support FIPS 140-2 certification of products using SymCrypt.
+- Provide high assurance in the proper functionality of the library.
 
 # Build and Test
-TODO: Describe and show how to build your code and run the tests. 
+At the moment this library only compiles with the Windows build system. 
+Unfortunately this toolchain is not available outside Microsoft.
+We expect to have a Linux port working in the near future.
+
+The SymCrypt unit test is in the `\unittest` directory. It runs extensive functional tests on the SymCrypt
+library, as well as on other implementations such as the Windows APIs CNG and CAPI, and the older crypto libraries 
+rsa32 and msbignum. It also provides detailed performance information.
 
 # Contribute
-TODO: Explain how other users and developers can contribute to make your code better. 
+We love to receive comments and suggestions. Unfortunately we cannot accept external code contributions at this time.
+Cryptographic code is considered highly sensitive by many of our large customers.
+We have some very big customers who put great value in the assurance of the crypto code used in their organization.
+By restricting the coding to a handful of employees we can greatly reduce the (perceived) risk of malicious contributions.
+
+TBD: what else? Email address? 
 
-If you want to learn more about creating good readme files then refer the following [guidelines](https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/git/create-a-readme). You can also seek inspiration from the below readme files:
-- [ASP.NET Core](https://github.com/aspnet/Home)
-- [Visual Studio Code](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode)
-- [Chakra Core](https://github.com/Microsoft/ChakraCore)