Serkan Şahinoğlu started programming in 1995. He submitted his ForPrompt Studio showcase entry at the Delphi 26th Showcase Challenge and we interviewed him to get more insight into his experiences with Delphi. Head over to the ForPrompt Studio website for the product and how to use it.

When did you start using RAD Studio Delphi and how long have you been using it?

Since 1995, I have been developing software in Delphi and various languages for 26 years. It has been part of many of my projects since Delphi 1. Thanks to its practicality, it helps me to finish the product in a short time.

What was it like building software before you had RAD Studio Delphi?

With Delphi a simple database application could be developed in minutes without writing any code, even twenty years ago, using embedded components for the database.

How did RAD Studio Delphi help you create your showcase application?

As I mentioned earlier, RAD Studio is extremely rapid and application-oriented, this is my very first mobile application developed while learning Firemonkey for the first time, this really proves RAD studio has really good features to get the work done fast. When I need a rich interface and practicality in my projects, I mostly use Delphi. I prepared DLL libraries and external modules for custom applications several times using C++ and C#, and I used Delphi again for the interface.

What makes RAD Studio Delphi stand out from other options?

I usually prefer Delphi when developing software with extensive interfaces. With hundreds of visual components and features ready, I can focus on my actual work without dealing with unnecessary details. After doing projects in Visual Basic, Visual C++, C#, and other programming languages, I came to the conclusion that Delphi is a practical software development tool that can produce rapidly. Now it has reached an advanced level that can compile the same project for Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, Android operating systems.

What made you happiest about working with RAD Studio Delphi?

One of Delphi’s my favorite features is that all libraries have clear and readable source codes. By examining them, we can program them more efficiently and easily to understand what is going on behind our code up to the operating system level because it is written very practically and understandably. They also help you learn how to coding. Since the software we produce with Delphi is standalone exe file, the fact that it can be easily transported and operated without the need for additional installations speeds up our business. I can also share my practical small software with my friends as a single small exe file. The VCL library, which cleverly encapsulates the massive Windows API, its practicality in database applications, and the fact that there is no longer the need to encode heavy DirectX/OpenGL thanks to FireMonkey are all my favorite aspects of Delphi. It’s nice that the DXScene/VGScene library, which I bought a lifetime license a few years ago, soon came across as FireMonkey and evolved to its current level.

What have you been able to achieve through using RAD Studio Delphi to create your showcase application?

The teleprompter render engine I created in Firemonkey sends floating reading text to the laptop monitor or to screens in the TV studio via I/O cards such as Decklink and AJA. In MOS protocol compliant news automations, text written by editors is updated on the screen instantly automatically. The software can be managed remotely with our wired and wireless remote controllers. In doing the project, Delphi offered options to make my job easier at every stage.

What are some future plans for your showcase application?

Our project was published a few months ago and I am continuing the development process. We are targeting to have new competitive features while maintaining the high quality of our software. We continue to produce our new digital broadcast monitors, teleprompter devices and remote control devices that we produce together with the software for our prompter systems. In addition to the Windows version of our prompter software, the MacOS version will also be released soon. In many countries, it was important that it could work on different operating systems, as it was used by TV channels, youtubers, speakers, companies, military and government agencies, country leaders. We have not yet received any requests from our customers for Linux, but I know that if desired, I can compile the project for the Linux platform in a short time. I chose to do this project with Delphi because of the multi-platform architecture I needed and the rapid product development.

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Thank you, Serkan! Check out his showcase entry below.

Showcase

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