We just shared a preview of 10.3 Rio in Brazil on Tuesday, the 23 of October here at the Embarcadero Conference in São Paulo. Over 750 developers were in attendance, and the speakers included many Embarcadero and Sencha MVPs. I snapped a few pictures from the event that I thought I would share.
With a name like 10.3 Rio is great we were able to do a preview event in Brazil as part of their annual developer conference. I’ve been in attendance every year since I started at Embarcadero, and it is something I always look forward to. Most years the attendance is around 400 to 500. I’m sure the news about 10.3 Rio and the recent Community Edition helped contribute to the high attendance numbers this year. Either way it is great to see the Delphi developer community continue to grow.
I hope to get some more of the pictures I was in with the MVPs and other speakers, as well as some other general conference pictures. I’ll share those later when I get them.
All the sessions were the same room with the attendees using headsets to switch between the audio tracks. If you didn’t have a headset the room was pretty quiet.David Millington kicking off the Keynote where we previewed some 10.3 Rio featuresThe Exhibit Hall with some great partnersThis is me in front of the welcome signDavid Millington in front of the welcome signI’m wearing the Rio RGB Glasses with the Delphi powered controller on my Android phoneKelver and Fernando with David and IDavid Millington showing new Delphi language features
Stay tuned for more news about 10.3 Rio and other pictures from the event!
Early on I learned Turbo Pascal, which was a huge step up from the Basic and Batch File programming I cut my teeth on. When Delphi came along I thought it was brilliant and fell in love immediately. I had no interest in learning other programming languages or tools. Delphi did it all, and that was great. I found myself plenty of work and enough to keep my interest.
I was curious about other programming languages, from an academic point of view. I took a night school class in Assembly. I had a smattering of C & C++. Looked at some Ruby (back before it was hip), Java, JavaScript, etc. Eventually, I found myself spending a few years debugging laser printers, which ran a combination of C/C++/COM all on a Linux platform.
From there I went back to full-time Delphi programming, but the new company I was working for bought into the “there aren’t enough Delphi developers” myth and decided to move to C# & WinForms. We immediately were able to hire some new C# developers, but as we got to know them we found out they had more Delphi experience than C#, but they bought into the “there are no Delphi jobs” myth and rebranded themselves as C# developers. (This is what we call a circular argument or self-fulfilling prophecy.) In the end, the project took 4 times longer than it should have, despite having more developers, and “more modern developer tools.” They really should have stuck with Delphi.
I moved to a new job doing Delphi development full time, and then that company bought into the C# & Silverlight are the future. Since I had C# experience, I started working on the new Silverlight front end. The back end and the desktop app remained in Delphi (with a little C++). We all know what happened with Silverlight (if you even remember it . . .)
From there I ended up really branching out. I did a lot more work with C#, Xamarin, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, and Oxygene (known as Delphi Prism at the time). There was still some Delphi mixed in too. I taught a few classes and workshops on Android development with Java. I learned to appreciate some of the benefits, strengths, and qualities of each. I found things about all of them I liked (less so about Objective-C).
It was at this point I could see that most developer skills work across languages, tools, and platform. There is value in knowing and using multiple languages. The basic tenants of each language influence the way you do things in other languages, in a positive way, helping you to look at problems in a different way. There are some projects, platforms, and problems that are best suited to certain programming languages and tools. For example, if you are working with the web, you need to know at least some JavaScript, HTML & CSS (the latter two not being programming languages, but I digress), even if you are using some sort of abstraction layer.
Throughout all of this, I still found myself choosing to Delphi for personal projects. Occasionally I’d try personal projects in other tools and languages as a way to get to know them better, but I still found Delphi to be a better solution for most general purpose projects. One of the defining characteristics of Delphi for why I keep coming back to it is that it makes the common tasks really, really easy while keeping the rest simple and possible.
Other tools that focus on productivity, make a small subset of tasks as easy as Delphi does, but also make anything beyond those tasks, or the that “ideal” scenario, hard or impossible. While other general purpose tools don’t do anything to optimize common scenarios, which makes simple tasks more complicated than they need to be.
Now with multi-platform development Delphi is more important than ever. The approach Delphi and FireMonkey provide make it quick and easy to do the most common tasks, while also keeping all the platform APIs and features within reach.
Delphi really invented the 3rd party component market as far as I am concerned. From the beginning, it shipped with all the source code for the VCL and also included a robust OpenTools API and component model making easy for others to extend the IDE, and build reusable components and libraries. All the technology partners are a huge part of why I choose Delphi.
Delphi also has a huge commitment to the code we as developers develop. I attend a lot of general software developer groups, and it is common to hear developers complaining about how they just finished porting their code to support a new version of their tools, only to have it all break again because a new release of their non-Delphi programming language or framework just came out. Often times they just throw it all out and rewrite to support a new version. Sure, Delphi it isn’t perfect, and sometimes there are incompatibilities or breaking changes from version to version, but by comparison, Delphi is so much better at this than any other language or platform out there that I have seen.
I started out choosing Delphi because it was what I knew. Now I choose Delphi because it gets the job done better than the alternatives. The fact it is faster for development is nice, but only part of the equation. I used to have a hat that said “Delphi does it all, especially Windows” and that is truer than ever today.
So why do you Choose Delphi? Share your reasons in the comments or on your blog #WhyIChooseDelphi
Nick and Jim talk with MVP Holger Flick of Korfmann Air Technology and Flix Engineering fame about smart textiles, the different software development disciplines and the future of technology. Holger also reminds everyone to see him and others at the Delphi Code Camp in Germany.
Get Bit Episode with Holger Flick[ 45:16 ]Download
I wanted to share a little about HOSOKAWA Jun, our Japanese MVP. He blogs at qiita.com/pik and you can follow him on Twitter @pik.
When I was in Tokyo I got to meet HOSOKAWA Jun. We have a lot of great developers in Japan (and I met a lot of them at the event there), but many of them work at a company that doesn’t allow them to also be an MVP. Luckily Mr. Hosokawa works for SerialGames and they are happy to have him as an MVP.
Don’t let his boyish good looks fool you, he is a senior software developer who started programming with Delphi in University. He’s worked with artificial intelligence and currently has an interest in virtual reality and mixed reality. While I was talking with him at dinner he showed me some components and development tools he’s created to make mobile app development a whole lot easier.
He was involved in the development of the Saitobaru Archaeological Museum of Miyazaki Prefecture BeaconFence powered app too.
Here is a little interview I did with him so you can learn more about him (translated from Japanese)
What I do
I develop applications and games. I use mainly Unity for game development, however I develop tools, components and plugins with Delphi & C/C++.
Recently, I am often doing more innovative development beyond games and applications. For examples, I am developing applications for VR/MR (Virtual Reality / Mixed Reality) devices such as Oculus rift and HoloLens. Also developmenting more technically complex algorithms and libraries.
Where I work
I work for SERIALGAMES Inc. located in Akihabara, which is a state-of-the-art city of techno pop culture. We hope to convey cutting-edge excitement by having our headquarters there.
[Akihabara is a shortening of Akibagahara (“autumn leaf field”) after Akiba, a fire controlling deity. It is nicknamed Akihabara Electric Town (Akihabara Denki Gai). It is considered by many to be an otaku cultural center and a shopping district for video games, anime, manga, and computer goods.]
My background in development
When I was a junior high school student I started programing for the first time using BASIC. I started using Turbo Pascal 5.0 in a high school computer room. It is around this time that I also started working in assembly language and C / C++. When I entered university I studied artificial intelligence and produced evolution simulation of virtual life. I remember that Delphi 1.0 was released around this time, I was absorbed in programming. Of course, my artificial intelligence and other projects were developed in Delphi. Also, like many students, I love games and playing games when not sleeping.
And now, I am at a game production company where I can use state-of-the-art technology with artificial intelligence and virtual life technology.
What sort of development I am interested in
The technology I think that is particularly interesting recently is HoloLens / Windows Mixed Reality. When you can create HoloLens applications in Delphi there will be a lot of great apps.
What I am excited about in the future
I think mobile devices such as Android and iOS are transitional technologies.
Ten years ago, as we could not imagine the iPhone. New hardware, software, and technology will surely appear in the next decade that we can’t imagine today. And I will be very happy to develop for it with Delphi.
I got to sit down with some of the engineers in Tokyo to talk about C++Builder, RAD Studio and Delphi. C++Builder is big in Japan. Maybe even bigger than Delphi (which is saying a lot.) It was great to put faces with the names of these great guys who I’ve only corresponded with over email or social media before.
Aiso-san, Mohri-san & Inoue-san are all software consultant engineers. Aiso-san and Inoue-san where part of the presentation #0315inTokyo with Fujii-san and I. The 4th engineer in the back of the photo below is Kenji Umeda, a support engineer that isn’t on Twitter for me to link to.
I wanted to spotlight a recent return to the Delphi community as an MVP: Dr. Holger Flick. He’s started blogging again and hasn’t slowed down producing good quality technical content.
Like many of us, Holger started programming with Turbo Pascal and GW Basic. For him it was at the age of 7 (with Basic) and switching to Delphi 2 at the age of 14. In 2003 he became very active in the forums and was a member of Team Indy. During that time he was blogging at “Holger’s Thoughts on Delphi,” and also wrote several articles in German and Dutch Delphi magazines.
Holger even spent some time freelancing for QA at Borland and CodeGear. Later for Embarcadero he reported bugs on the localization in German. He also freelanced on the Borland and CodeGear Developer Network. Eventually he earned a place on the Delphi 2005, 2006 and 2007 credits screen (Help > About press ALT key and type TEAM.)
Holgar regularly spoke at conferences on Model-Driven Application Development, ECO (Enterprise Core Objects), and ASP.NET (with Delphi for .NET naturally). I met Holger in person in San Jose at the Delphi Developer Conference in May of 2009, and again in Las Vegas at the Delphi Developer Solutions Conference in 2011.
Holger studied Computer Science at Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, and earned his Ph.D. in Engineering at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He then founded his own IT consulting company in 2011 before joining Korfmann Lufttechnik GmbH as head of IT. Now with his company Flixments, LLC. and new brand Flix Engineering he is blogging about Delphi development again. As an Embarcadero MVP I’m sure his professional skills will be a huge benefit to the Delphi community and IT landscape in South West Florida in general.
Holger says it was hard to find a recent picture of him without sunglasses as they are pretty much required in Florida.
Join me in welcoming Holger back to the Delphi community as an MVP!
I’m sure you’ve all visited FMXExpress.com, if you haven’t then I’ll just let you go there now. Eli is joining us for the C++ Boot Camp this week and is presenting on Thursday with coverage of game development with FireMonkey. He is showing off 4 different FireMonkey games that run on Android, iOS, macOS and Windows. The cool thing is some of the games have features where you can view the game on device while you control it on the other.
Eli currently manages a team of about 25 independent content creators, schedulers, and developers through UpWork. The content team handles over 30 Facebook pages reaching an audience of tens of millions of users. He has been hiring through UpWork since 2012 and has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars on hundreds of contracts across many different projects. Through his writing on FMXExpress.com Eli has reached over 300,000 developers interested in Delphi FireMonkey with over 600 tips and tricks articles. Additionally, over the years, he has deployed over 300 games to the web, Android, iOS, and Windows and aggregated 80,000+ flash games which have reached over 120+ million players worldwide with 215+ million gameplays. He is a full stack developer and entrepreneur who has also developed and deployed various trialware, freeware, open source, and server softwares with Delphi and many other technologies that have reached millions of users on the desktop.
When not being a business and development rockstar, Eli likes to travel.
You can find Eli all over the web and social media, but here are a few very cool sites to check out . . . .
Samuel “Muka” David is a Certified Delphi Developer since version 7 and a Certified Delphi Master Instructor. He specializes in software construction and building components. He loves Object Oriented development and is addicted to refactoring and agile techniques. He is always in search of perfect technique, following development teachers to acquire more knowledge in the art of programming. Delphi official instructor in RS by Aquasoft. Speaker at numbers Delphi Conference and one of Delphi Users Group coordinators of Rio Grande do Sul (DUG-RS). Also a lead instructor for the Extreme Delphi events all over Brazil.
I’ve met Samuel 3 times while visiting for the annual developer conference in Brazil. One thing he does to make things memorable is creating his talk around a move theme or some other external influence. In 2014 he was dressed as a Ghostbuster and did Bug Busters. Here is picture I got with him, Marco Cantu and my flaming hair.
He also creates matching promotional posters for the conference . . .
Not only is he a master Delphi developer, he is also a master with Photoshop, creativity and costume design. He makes all his outfits himself, including the cool Delphi helmet patch on his shoulder above. Here he is dressed as Indiana Jones in 2013.
If you live near Brazil then I encourage to to plan on attending the 2016 Embarcadero Conference there. Not only will it be filled with great developer technical content, but you’ll get to meet all the great Brazilian MVPs and see what Samuel is dressed as this year.
In 2015 he was dressed as a member of the Elite Squad, although he isn’t wearing his beret in the picture above.
I’ve never asked Bob if he actually has a PhD, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does in being Awesome. Either-way, he deserves the Dr. title for all the great work he does on his site, speaking at conferences and in his writing.
Currently Bob is enjoying his semi-annual holiday at Euro Disney with his two kids Erik Mark Pascal and Natasha Louise Delphine. Yes, those are their actual names! So cool.
I’ve met Bob a few times, once when I was in the Netherlands for the Software Development Conference. That was a great treat, and Bob was amazing to work with. I’ve ran into him at various conferences too.
The most recent time I met Bob was when he was hosting the Delphi Developer Days with Cary Jensen. I was one of the guest speakers. I love the Delphi Developer Days events because they are always full of great technical content, and it is a great opportunity to visit with amazing people like Bob.
There are a handful of people who I believe are key to the developer community, and Cary Jensen is one of them. He’s been a rock in the community since the beginning. Even before Delphi he was instrumental with the Turbo Pascal community.
Cary consults, writes, presents, and trains on Delphi, databases and other related technologies. Cary’s authored over 20 books, with his latest being Delphi in Depth: ClientDataSets, 2nd Edition. He’s also presented multiple RAD-in-Action webinars online. You can catch the replays and check out the accompanying white papers.
I met Cary the first time in Darmstadt, Germany at the Entwickler Konferenz, aka EKON. I think it was lucky #13. I thought it was rather ironic that we were both from the US, but finally met in Germany. Since then I’ve met with him a few more times in Germany, and he invited me as a guest presenter at his Delphi Developer Days.
If you’ve not been to one of his Delphi Developer Days then you really should do what you can to attend this year. Each year he teams up with a co-host, and this year it is none other than Nick Hodges. They just opened registration for the 2 day event, so act fast to take advantage of the very early bird discount.
Samuel “Muka” David is a Certified Delphi Developer since version 7 and a Certified Delphi Master Instructor. He specializes in software construction and building components. He loves Object Oriented development and is addicted to refactoring and agile techniques. He is always in search of perfect technique, following development teachers to acquire more knowledge in the art of programming. Delphi official instructor in RS by Aquasoft. Speaker at numbers Delphi Conference and one of Delphi Users Group coordinators of Rio Grande do Sul (DUG-RS). Also a lead instructor for the 
