Create 'about' document

README.md

@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ Exercises to train your C++11/14/17 (and then some).
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+## About
+
+This repo is intended as a resource to use during C++ trainings.  If you're curious about how it came
+to be, take a look at [about.md](about.md).
+
 ## Getting started
 
 ### Linux

about.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+# Exercises for the masses
+
+## History
+
+Working in C++ around the year 2010 was very exciting. The language was about
+to receive some vast new impulses, promising better semantics, performance, …
+
+In 2016, I was lucky enough to work in an environment that lived on the edge:
+constantly following the latest (Microsoft) compiler versions, and writing C++
+programs according to the latest and greatest idioms.
+
+All of this happiness had to be shared. That’s why my employer, Sioux Embedded
+Systems, asked if anyone would be able to create a C++11/14 ramp-up course for
+my colleagues. Of course I bit.
+
+The budget: 5 days of preparation - a challenge for me. It seemed a vast
+undertaking, given the fact that I hadn’t been giving training, nothing ‘free’
+could be found. So I decided I would borrow free and open source presentations,
+and create exercises myself. But how?
+
+As it happened, there also was a gap in the knowledge of unit testing
+frameworks. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Fond of TDD, I had grown
+quite familiar with the googletest framework. So I decided to create a bunch of
+failing unit tests that had to be ‘fixed’ using C++11/14 features.
+
+Since I was to take all my course material from the internet, I thought it only
+fitting to give back. So I started creating the course in the open on
+https://github.com/xtofl/cpp11training/.
+
+## Overview
+
+### Repo structure
+
+* Presentations
+* Exercises
+
+### Licensing
+### Exercise
+
+## Future
+
+Meanwhile, 2020, and I have given this training about 5 times.  Everytime, the
+overall response is: what a great idea to offer us running code in the form of
+isolated unit tests.  The fun part for me is that whenever someone finds a
+mistake, I can kindly ask them to fix it and create a merge request.
+
+Of course you'll see that some effort went into supporting different platforms:
+some audiences require Visual Studio, others are really diverse and have mixed
+platforms - which is why the exercises are now built using CMake.
+
+
+
+