>I am looking at Rational Rose 98. Our company is moving to a client server
>environment and this tool looks like it could be useful in helping us layout

If you can learn and apply an OO Methodology I would say (as would many others around here) that it is definitely worth the time and effort.

>The ability to design and automatically create framework for code looks like a
>time saver, but how much time? Is it worth learning the UML notation and the
>product features in order to create some class frameworks?

The Visual Modeling Wizard from Microsoft is an unsupported piece of junk. We might be experiencing problems because we are using the full version of Rational Rose (not the Visual Modeler). As we upgrade our versions of Rose the Visual Modeling Wizard loses functionality (I assume this is due to upgrades/changes in Rose's COM interface). Queries to Microsoft about bugs and fixes go unanswered so we've written it off.

Keep in mind you can communicate to Rose via COM, if you've got a lot of stuff to automate you might want to just roll your own program to translate from Rose -> VFP Libraries.

Originally we thought the main benefit would be code generation but that has fallen out of favor. The benefit for our company is having a common way for everyone to communicate. For our latest project we have 2 complete models, one that represents the Problem Domain (what we want to do) and one that represents the Implementation (what we've actually done). If someone needs to be brought up to speed we used to give them a lengthy specification document and then point them at the code (very inefficient). Now we point them at the 2 models what we have. If the person 'getting up to speed' needs a general overview they can get it without being deluged with detail from a detailed spec, if they do need the detail they can drill down into the model to get it.

>What type of application would benefit from a modeling tool? Are primarily
>large applications modeled with a tool like this, or would smaller apps
>benefit?

Any application that will have multiple programmers or will require maintenance in the future. I would say start out small to get familiar with and to refine the methodology you decide to use.

>Microsoft is including Visual Modeler with Dev. Studio Enterprise, which is
>a paired down version of Rational Rose.

I would spend the money for the full version of Rose. The Visual Modeler (although it looks just like Rose) is unstable. It is also has a reduced feature set making it very difficult to do any serious modeling. To realize the full benefits of an OO Methodology you will want access to more than the Visual Modeler allows.