Flavius Fernandes has been using Delphi since Borland Delphi 5. His showcase entry (ERP Sirius +Mobile) is featured at the Delphi 26th Showcase Challenge and we interviewed him to learn more about his Delphi journey. You can learn more about his application at the ERP website.
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When did you start using RAD Studio/Delphi and have long have you been using it?
I have been using Delphi since Borderland Delphi 5, developing various types of business applications since 2000. Our business application is developed in RAD Studio 10.3.3
What was it like building software before you had RAD Studio/Delphi?
I started developing software using COBOL, RPG, Basic, and Clipper. I looked at many developed languages at the time (and still do). Nothing comes close to my requirements that included ease to use, code editor, visual designer, an integrated debugger, and support for third-party plugins. RAD Studio allows me to develop rapidly, from prototypes to a stable progressive state. It greatly reduces development time, allowing me to spend more time on other objectives.
How did RAD Studio/Delphi help you create your showcase ERP application?
Delphi has been a great development tool in helping me develop ERPSirius +Mobile. DataSnap is used for our client-server functionality. FireDAC is used to allow us to offer all the major enterprise databases with our application. I like the way DataSnap and FireDAC work together. FireDAC JSON Reflection with TFDMemTable is great for creating desktop or mobile front-ends using REST. Using TFDConnection and TFDQuery is great for the back-ends. It’s important that our applications are aesthetically pleasing to the users and VCLStyle/FireMonkey styles allow me to make that happen. The visual designer is great for fast prototyping. One can evolve UI/UX as the application matures very easily. Many components can be used to further reduce development time and add great functionality.
What made RAD Studio/Delphi stand out from other options?
Object Pascal is easy to learn and the Delphi IDE just keeps improving. RAD Studio/Delphi has everything one would need to develop great applications, a code editor, a visual designer, an integrated debugger and native Component Object Model (COM) support. It’s just a great tool for cross-platform development. Database support is a key feature. Delphi has a fast compilation speed and complies to native code.
What made you happiest about working with RAD Studio/Delphi?
Its rapid product development ability, the new features being added, cross-platform support. RAD Studio/Delphi allows me to build simple and improve in time. The RAD Studio online community is great for help and ideas. The debugging facilities are great. The Windows UI and VCL components keep improving and this allows me to make limited use of 3rd party components. There is always something interesting and new that makes me want to keep up with the latest version of RAD Studio/Delphi. I am at my best when I use RAD Studio to develop solutions on the fly, and collaborate with business stakeholder in real time.
What have you been able to achieve through using RAD Studio/Delphi to create the ERP Sirius +Mobile application?
To be able to develop and offer a downloadable ERP with all its advanced features is a great achievement. ERP Sirius offers modules that other ERP lacks, and the list of modules to be added will just grow, improve, and evolve. This is down to the way the application is developed and RAD Studio/Delphi is the tool that makes it happen. I could say RAD Studio bring out the artistic and creative side in a developer.
What are some future plans for your ERP application?
We have exciting plans for the future. One is hosting our demo database on Azure cloud and allowing anyone without an active license to look and interact with the business modules on offer. Our revised android app will be released as a demo this year, and new modules added to the mobile application. I am really excited about the mobile app. The key features of our mobile application is the ChimesAI framework that revolutionizes the way business information is presented and actioned by all business users. We have new logistics modules in our next release update developed and refined with our experience developing freight forwarding, warehousing, and logistics software in the past. Since the application is designed for global use, multi-language is in future plans also. I will be looking for talent, partners to take the application and my vision of the next business tool the next level. I am also thinking about a way of making some parts of the development open source. It would be great if RAD Studio developers around the world could work on our application because it is designed to be a global application. We have a new blog page on our website where we will share information about our future plans, white papers, etc. Our blog page will also allow people to share opinions and interact with us on certain topics. We take a great interest in the RAD Studio road map, and once again thanks to the RAD Studio team at Embarcadero.
Thank you, Flavius! Check out his showcase entry below.