Delphi Developer Days 2013 Course Book

Over the past month and a half, Bob Swart and I have been writing the material for Delphi Developer Days 2013 (http://www.DelphiDeveloperDays.com). In all we produced seven chapters each. Bob and I each wrote two of the joint sessions, and we each wrote our own four individual sessions. We also each wrote our half of the Tips, Tricks, and Techniques session. This is why the course book has 14 chapters while Delphi Developer Days includes 13 unique sessions.

Loy Anderson, who manages Delphi Developer Days, had given us an early April deadline in order to have the course books printed in time for Chicago. It was a lot of work, but we did it, and Loy worked hard to compile our chapters into a unified book as we finished each chapter. She submitted the book for printing on April 7th, and we fully anticipated getting the books in time for our Chicago event, which begins on May 6th.

To our amazement, the books arrived this week, both those intended for Chicago as well as a European delivery of books for our Frankfurt and Amsterdam events. The book is over 400 pages in length, and we are not talking slideshows here. As you can see in the following picture, our chapters are detailed, and include screenshots and code samples.

Of course, this detail is necessary for our individual sessions. During these sessions, Bob and I break out into separate rooms to present our specific topics. If you decide to go to Bob's presentation, you can always catch up on my presentation by reading my chapter on the topic in the book. But we feel that detailed chapters are also important for our joint sessions, giving you something to refer back to long after Delphi Developer Days is over.

I am especially pleased this year with our content. Like I have done in the past with Marco Cantù, Bob and I worked hard to create a solid selection of topics that should be of interest to almost every Delphi developer. Some of our sessions cover the absolute latest information on Delphi, including Delphi XE4, which was announced just over a week ago. These talks include iOS development, Delphi's new NextGen compiler, and FireDAC, the new data access component framework.

There is also plenty of material to engage developers using older versions of Delphi. For example, there are talks on multithreaded development, DataSnap, debugging, browser-based clients, and Windows services. When appropriate, these talks discuss features added in recent versions of Delphi. However, the bulk of the information in these chapters applies to older versions of Delphi (some going back as far as the original Delphi).

In addition to working to find a balance of topics, Bob and I also worked to organize the talks intelligently. For example, talks on data access (including FireDAC) and multithreaded development are presented prior to those on DataSnap (which assumes knowledge about data access and multithreaded programming).

Likewise, we tried to pair our individual presentations in a meaningful way. When one of us is speaking about one of the most recent versions of Delphi, the other is presenting a topic that appeals to developers using older versions. Likewise, we tried to match an Internet-related presentation with one that applies to traditional workstation applications.

Although the book is printed (and in our hands), we all continue preparing for the actual events. Loy has a lot of organizational details to complete, including the printing of name badges and onsite signage, as well as arranging for lunches and our various guest speakers. Bob and I continue to work on our talks, creating our slideshows, and adding to, and improving, the demo projects that we'll use.

We are really looking forward to this year's event, and I am looking forward to this first year presenting with Bob Swart. For those of you who have already registered, we look forward to seeing your there. While Chicago has sold out, we still have space available in both Frankfurt and Amsterdam, but we expect these cities to sell out as well. Furthermore, at the time of this posting we still have a 10% discount for early registration in Europe, which ends April 30, 2013. See http://www.DelphiDeveloperDays.com for details and pricing.

Delphi Developer Days is fun, and we are looking forward to it. We hope you are, too.