I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at TMS Training Days 2026 in Rotterdam, and I hope to see you there! After successful events in Lille and Bruges, the TMS team is bringing this incredible two-day developer conference to the Rotterdam Marriott Hotel (right across from Rotterdam Central Station) on April 23-24, 2026.
Here's an interesting fact: When I got deeply involved in the Delphi community back in 2004, everybody was telling me "Delphi is dead." The hot new thing was .NET, and conventional wisdom said anyone still writing in Delphi was living in the past.
Guess what? It's 2026, and Delphi is still in production, still being actively developed, and I'm still making money writing code in Delphi. In fact, my entire consulting business is built partly on helping companies maintain and modernize their Delphi applications.
I learned something valuable from that experience: premature obituaries and hype cycles are terrible guides for technology decisions. Longevity comes from solving real problems reliably, not from being the hottest thing on tech Twitter.
Which brings me to today's situation.
The no-code movement is having its moment. Articles proclaim its death, its rebirth, its transformation. But amid all this noise, there's a critical distinction being lost:
Rapid Application Development (RAD) is not no-code, and the difference matters more than ever.
I've been building Windows desktop applications with Delphi for three decades. During that time, I've watched trends come and go—from the CASE tool revolution to today's no-code platforms. And I've learned something important: there's a vast difference between tools that eliminate coding and tools that accelerate coding through intelligent design.
A personal reflection on three decades of desktop development, and what comes next
I started with Delphi before most developers today wrote their first line of code. Over 30 years, I watched Borland rise, worked inside the company, and built a career helping others master the platform. I've created hundreds of videos, spoken at conferences worldwide, and earned recognition in the Delphi community.
But I'm not writing this to reminisce. I'm writing because the world has fundamentally shifted, and pretending otherwise helps no one.
The traditional setup—a developer at a desk, building Windows applications that run on office PCs—is no longer the default. People work from phones on trains. They access business systems from tablets in warehouses. Executives approve invoices from airport lounges.
The desktop isn't dead. But it's no longer the center of gravity.
I came across something this morning that made me pause: a developer celebrating their move from daily ZIP files to GitHub, calling it their "backup solution." While I'm genuinely happy they've discovered version control, this statement reveals a dangerous misconception that's worth addressing.
Let me be clear: GitHub is not a backup. Version control is not backup. Full stop.
I recently came across several Delphi implementations in which developers used their own random number generators, apparently unaware of—or unconvinced by—the built-in Randomize and Random functions that have been part of the RTL since Delphi's earliest days. Some developers seem to believe they can do better than the runtime library, while others might simply not know what's already available.
Let's take a fair look at Delphi's built-in random number generation, understand when it's perfectly adequate, and identify the rare cases where you might actually need something more sophisticated.
If you've been writing Delphi code for any length of time, you've used TStringList. It's the go-to container for managing lists of strings. But here's the thing: most developers only scratch the surface of what this versatile class can do.
Let me show you three powerful features that often fly under the radar: duplicate handling, built-in sorting, and the surprisingly useful CommaText property.
As the holiday season wraps us in its magical embrace, I wanted to share a fun little project that perfectly captures the Christmas spirit while showcasing the power of AI-assisted Delphi development. Meet Santa's Sleigh - a delightful VCL application that brings Santa and his reindeer flying across your Windows desktop!
This isn't just another holiday greeting - it's a fascinating experiment in modern Delphi development. The entire application was created through AI-powered coding, demonstrating just how far we've come in leveraging AI to build real, working applications.
Santa's Sleigh is a transparent, borderless VCL application that features:
Every December, you can hear it echo across developer forums:
“AI? Bah, humbug! It doesn’t help with real Delphi code!”
If you’ve spent decades refining your Delphi craft — from Turbo Pascal to today’s VCL and FireMonkey projects — you might share that sentiment. But let me show you why those days are fading faster than a pine tree in January.
Recently, I built a new Delphi system information component, TSysInfo, in about one hour.
No, not because I worked all night — but because AI helped.
I’m very excited to share some great news — TMS Software has announced the next edition of TMS Training Days, which will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on April 23–24, 2026!
This isn’t my first time being part of a TMS event, and even though I’ve been a bit quiet lately when it comes to TMS and Delphi, I’m proud and truly honored to be invited again to speak at yet another TMS Days.
After 30 years in software development, I've learned that specialized tools almost always outperform generalist solutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in database management, where IBExpert stands as the undisputed champion for Firebird databases.
Let me be blunt: if you're working with Firebird databases and you're not using IBExpert, you're making your life harder than it needs to be. I've tried the alternatives—those Swiss Army knife database tools that promise to handle "any database." They all fall short when it comes to Firebird. The difference isn't subtle; it's the gap between a tool built by people who truly understand Firebird's architecture and one where Firebird support was tacked on as an afterthought.
After years of working with various frameworks and tools for building web services, I've come to a clear conclusion: TMS XData is the best tool for the job—if you're a Delphi developer. Now, I'll be upfront—I've been doing extensive work with the company that distributes TMS XData, so there's certainly a personal connection here. But my preference isn't just based on familiarity or convenience. There are solid, practical reasons why I keep reaching for XData whenever I need to build robust, professional web services in the Delphi ecosystem.
Let me be clear from the start: I'm talking specifically about the best solution for Delphi developers. Other languages have their own excellent options—Node.js has Express, Python has Flask and FastAPI, .NET has ASP.NET Core. Each language ecosystem has evolved its own tools optimized for its strengths. But if your world is Delphi, and you need to build web services that leverage your existing Delphi skills and codebase, TMS XData stands above the rest.
A Comprehensive Update That Justifies Its Place on Your Shelf
As someone who has followed the evolution of development platforms across decades, I can confidently say this is the essential purchase for any C# developer looking to stay current with .NET 10. Even if you own the .NET 9 edition, this book earns its place in your library.
Mark Price has put considerable effort into updating every page for this new version—and it shows. This isn’t a lazy refresh with minor tweaks; it’s a thorough revision that covers the meaningful changes in C# 14 and .NET 10, from the new NumericOrdering option and OrderedDictionary enhancements to field modifiers, partial events, and instance constructors.
The book excels at its stated purpose: providing an easy-to-follow guide through the fundamentals. It strikes that sweet spot between beginner-friendly and substantive enough for intermediate developers to learn something new.
Wir haben TypeScript-Grundlagen, React-Komponenten und die Next.js-Architektur behandelt. Jetzt sprechen wir über das, was wirklich zählt: Wie Sie Ihre Delphi-Anwendungen tatsächlich ins Web migrieren, ohne dabei Ihr Unternehmen zu zerstören.
Hier geht es nicht mehr um Code. Es geht um Strategie, Risikomanagement und kluge Geschäftsentscheidungen.
Sie befinden sich in einer schwierigen Lage. Sie haben:
Vermögenswerte:
Druck:
Sorgen:
Das sind berechtigte Sorgen. Lassen Sie uns sie systematisch angehen.
We've covered TypeScript fundamentals, React components, and Next.js architecture. Now let's talk about what really matters: how to actually migrate your Delphi applications to the web without destroying your business in the process.
This isn't about code anymore. This is about strategy, risk management, and making smart business decisions.
You're in a tough spot. You have:
Assets:
Pressures:
Concerns:
These are legitimate concerns. Let's address them systematically.