1 files changed, 36 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/desktop/README.md b/desktop/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a49f0051ae1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+What used to be the desktop in StarOffice 5 - now the binary.
+
+
+Stable Interface
+================
+
+Some of the artifacts built here are part of a LibreOffice installation set's
+stable interface, which (programmatic) clients can depend on.  Among them are:
+
+soffice
+=======
+
+In the "program" directory ("program/" on Linux and Windows, "Contents/MacOS/"
+on macOS).
+
+unoinfo
+=======
+
+In the "program" directory ("program/" on Linux and Windows, "Contents/MacOS/"
+on macOS).
+
+When called with a sole argument of "c++", it prints to stdout an absolute
+pathname denoting the directory where the public URE libraries are found.
+
+When called with a sole argument of "java", it prints to stdout a marker
+character (either an ASCII '0' or '1') followed by a sequence of zero or more
+absolute pathnames denoting jars or directories that need to be included in a
+class loader's search locations.
+
+If the marker character is '0' (on Linux and macOS), the pathnames are
+encoded as bytes, and any two pathnames in the sequence are separated from each
+other by NUL bytes.
+
+If the marker character is '1' (on Windows), the pathnames are encoded as
+UTF-16-LE two-byte code units, and any two pathnames in the sequence are
+separated from each other by two-byte NUL code units.