Update README.md

README.md

@@ -2,60 +2,41 @@
 
 # System for automated Quality Control (SaQC)
 
-Quality Control of numerical data requires a significant amount of
-domain knowledge and practical experience. Finding a robust setup of
-quality tests that identifies as many suspicious values as possible, without
-removing valid data, is usually a time-consuming endeavor,
-even for experts.
+Anomalies and errors are the rule not the exception when working with 
+time series data. This is especially true, if such data originates
+from in-situ measurements of environmental properties. 
+Almost all applications, however, implicily rely on data, that complies
+with some definition of 'correct'. 
+In order to infer reliable data products and tools, there is no alternative
+to quality control. SaQC provides all the building blocks to comfortably
+bridge the gap between 'usually faulty' and 'expected to be corrected' in 
+a accessible, consistent, objective and reproducible way.
+
+For a (continously improving) overview of features, typical usage patterns,
+the specific system components and how to customize `SaQC` to your specific
+needs, please refer to our
+[online documentation](https://rdm-software.pages.ufz.de/saqc/index.html).
 
-SaQC is both, a Python framework and a command line application, that
-addresses the exploratory nature of quality control by offering a
-continuously growing number of quality check routines through a flexible
-and simple configuration system.
 
-Below its user interface, SaQC is highly customizable and extensible.
-A modular structure and well-defined interfaces make it easy to extend
-the system with custom quality checks. Furthermore, even core components like
-the flagging scheme are exchangeable.
-
-![SaQC Workflow](ressources/images/readme_image.png "SaQC Workflow")
-
-## Why?
-During the implementation of data workflows in environmental sciences,
-our experience shows a significant knowledge gap between the people
-collecting data and those responsible for the processing and the
-quality-control of these datasets.
-While the former usually have a solid understanding of the underlying
-physical properties, measurement principles and the resulting errors,
-the latter are mostly software developers with expertise in
-data processing.
-
-The main objective of SaQC is to bridge this gap by allowing both
-parties to focus on their strengths: The data collector/owner should be
-able to express his/her ideas in an easy way, while the actual
-implementation of the algorithms is left to the respective developers.
-
-
-## How?
-
-`SaQC` is both a command line application controlled by a text based configuration file and a python
-module with a simple API.
+## Installation
 
-While a good (but still growing) number of predefined and highly configurable
-[functions](docs/FunctionIndex.md) are included and ready to use, SaQC
-additionally ships with a python based
-[extension language](docs/GenericFunctions.md) for quality and general
-purpose data processing.
+SaQC is available on the Python Package Index ([PyPI](https://pypi.org/)) and
+can be installed using [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/):
+```sh
+python -m pip install saqc
+```
+For a more detailed installion guide, see the [installation guide](https://rdm-software.pages.ufz.de/saqc/getting_started/InstallationGuide.html).
 
-For a more specific round trip to some of SaQC's possibilities, please refer to
-the [Documention](https://rdm-software.pages.ufz.de/saqc/index.html).
+## Usage
 
+`SaQC` is both, a command line application controlled by a text based configuration
+and a python module with a simple API.
 
 ### SaQC as a command line application
-Most of the magic is controlled by a
-[semicolon-separated text file](saqc/docs/ConfigurationFiles.md) listing the variables of the
-dataset and the routines to inspect, quality control and/or process them.
-The content of such a configuration could look like this:
+The command line application is controlled by a semicolon-separated text
+file listing the variables in the dataset and the routines to inspect,
+quality control and/or process them. The content of such a configuration
+could look like this:
 
 ```
 varname    ; test
@@ -66,8 +47,8 @@ SM2        ; flagMissing()
 SM2        ; flagMad(window="30d", z=3.5)
 ```
 
-As soon as the basic inputs, a dataset and the configuration file are
-prepared, running SaQC is as simple as:
+As soon as the basic inputs, dataset and configuration file, are
+prepared, `SaQC` is run with:
 ```sh
 saqc \
     --config path_to_configuration.txt \
@@ -93,52 +74,6 @@ saqc = (SaQC(data)
 data, flags = saqc.getResult()
 ```
 
-## Installation
-
-### Python Package Index
-SaQC is available on the Python Package Index ([PyPI](https://pypi.org/)) and
-can be installed using [pip](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/):
-```sh
-python -m pip install saqc
-```
-For a more detailed installion guide, see [GettingStarted](docs/GettingStarted.md).
-
-### Anaconda
-Currently we don't provide pre-build conda packages but the installing of `SaQC`
-using the [conda package manager](https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/) is
-straightforward:
-1. Create an anaconda environment including all the necessary dependencies with:
-   ```sh
-   conda env create -f environment.yml
-   ```
-2. Load the freshly created environment with:
-   ```sh
-   conda activate saqc
-   ```
-
-### Manual installation
-
-The latest development version is directly available from the
-[gitlab](https://git.ufz.de/rdm-software/saqc) server of the
-[Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research](https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=33573).
-More details on how to install using the gitlab server are available
-[here](docs/GettingStarted.md).
-
-### Python version
-The minimum Python version required is 3.7.
-
-## License
-Copyright(c) 2019,
-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ.
-All rights reserved.
-
-The "System for Automated Quality Control" is free software. You can
-redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
-Public License as published by the free Software Foundation either
-version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See the
-[license](LICENSE.txt) for details.
-
-This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
-See the GNU General Public License for more details.
+A more detailed description of the Python API is available in the 
+[respective section](https://rdm-software.pages.ufz.de/saqc/getting_started/TutorialAPI.html)
+of the documentation.