diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 23b362459..e08b809c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,9 +13,9 @@ Detailed user documentation is available by running `help` within fish, and also
 
 ## Building
 
-Fish can be built using a C++11 environment but only requires C++03. It builds successfully with g++ 4.2 or later, and with clang. This allows fish to run on older systems such as OS X Snow Leopard (released in 2009).
+fish requires a C++11 compiler. It builds successfully with g++ 4.8 or later, or with clang 3.3 or later.
 
-Fish can be built using autotools or Xcode. autoconf 2.60 or later is required to build from git versions, but is not required for releases.
+fish can be built using autotools or Xcode. autoconf 2.60 or later is required to build from git versions, but is not required for releases.
 
 fish depends on a curses implementation, such as ncurses. The headers and libraries are required for building.
 
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Building the documentation requires Doxygen 1.8.7 or newer.
 
 ### Autotools Build
 
-    autoconf [if building from Git]
+    autoreconf --no-recursive [if building from Git]
     ./configure
     make [gmake on BSD]
     sudo make install