As a Object-Relational Tool. In all cases, it means that you simply link against the API and code provided in the turbine.jar file. In other words, if you want to only use the Object Relational aspects of Turbine, then you would use Torque to build your Object Relational code and then add the turbine.jar into your classpath. Another example is if you want to use Turbine's connection pool code. All you need to do is tell Turbine where its configuration file is, add turbine.jar to your classpath and then add the appropriate Turbine Java code into your application.
Turbine is now a fairly large codebase.
This can be daunting to people who are just starting out with Turbine. However, the code is fairly well organized and as you learn about each part of the code, the entire architecture starts to make sense and is really quite easy to master. The different Modules are described in more detail in the funtional specification document . This is where the code that represents Turbine's Object Model lives. For example, there is code that represents what a Turbine User is as well as code for the BaseObject and BasePeer which is for the Peer based Object Relational Tool.