What's Next?

This chapter has provided a limited overview of the capabilities of ModelMaker, covering apparently unrelated topics like UML diagrams, patterns, refactoring, and developer's documentation. There was a reason to touch on all these aspects, of course: ModelMaker can help you with all of them, whereas the Delphi IDE by itself provides little or no support for these features.

Refer to the websites and other documentation mentioned to gain a better understanding of the various techniques. As mentioned, ModelMaker provides a lot of documentation, including material about diagrams and patterns. Visit the product website www.modelmakertools.com to download more than you'll find in the default installation.

If you want more information about the techniques I've discussed, or just how to get started, refer to the ModelMaker online help and the User's Manual (available on Delphi 7's Companion CD). I also recommend the Thoughtsmithy website, where Robert Leahey has authored a set of "Getting Started with ModelMaker" tutorials. You can find them at:

www.thoughtsmithy.com/mmjump/MMGettingStarted_Intro.html

Next up is another chapter devoted to Delphi applications architecture. Chapter 12 features an in-depth analysis of COM-related technologies available in the Windows operating system and fully supported by Delphi. After that, we'll delve into the database-programming portion of the book.