We have tried to create the educational material for Dolphin to be as easy to use as possible. To this end you should find that the network of Patterns enables you to jump in and start using Dolphin at any level. Sometimes, though, you'll find that you need an overview of a topic that is just too detailed to give in a pattern sheet. That's why we've also produced this series of more detailed overviews on a variety of topics. You'll find that you come across links to these topics from other documents or, indeed, you may just wish to read through them in a linear fashion when you have the inclination.
The following overviews concern facilities that are available in the standard product.
Managing projects
Interfacing to external systems
Binary Filing
Exception handling
Weak references and finalization
A number of add-on packages are available to enhance the basic Dolphin development system. The use of these packages is discussed in the following sections.
Database access using ODBC
Network communications using TCP/IP Sockets
Building DirectX applications
Dolphin Smalltalk Web applets