Appercept’s Richard Hatherall: Bringing The Power Of AWS To Delphi

As the technology sector moves further toward cloud computing, a classic tool is undergoing radical changes. Delphi is the seasoned programming language famed for its rapid application development (RAD) capabilities. It has had its fame amongst developers who favor speed, ease of use, and cross-platform functionality for quite a long time.

However, with the emergence of cloud giants such as AWS, many Delphi developers have somewhat lacked integration tools. This is where the Appercept AWS SDK for Delphi comes into the picture, changing the way in which Delphi users interact with cloud services.

We spoke with Richard Hatherall, founder of Appercept, about the origin of this project, some of the stumbling blocks along the way, and how it can help to change the Delphi community.

Question: What is the reason for the relevance of Delphi in today’s technological setting?

Answer: Many would now consider Delphi to be a ‘legacy’ technology, but in fact, it is a technology still of utmost importance for many businesses. TIOBE Index places it in the top ten all the time, with its strengths being speed, simplicity, and compatibility. The language is unmatched when it comes to implementing an application within a short period between inception and launch.

Of course, it is not just speed. Delphi protects investments, capable of executing programs developed in the Windows 95 era seamlessly on modern systems. This protects companies in industries other than IT that can’t afford to regularly change IT infrastructures. Companies benefit from stability, durability, and low maintenance costs with Delphi. 

Question: Why should Delphi developers be involved in cloud integration?

Answer: Cloud computing is a need these days, and AWS is the largest cloud provider on the planet, setting the standard for cloud services. For small businesses, AWS is a game-changer, providing enterprise-level hosting, AI services, and scalability without the heavy upfront costs usually associated with IT infrastructure. DELPHI developers are going to be at a disadvantage if there is no adequate AWS SDK in this cloud era. Our SDK guarantees that Delphi still has a fighting chance as a suitable technology for modern application development.

Question: What motivated the creation of the Appercept AWS SDK for Delphi?

Answer: This challenging journey commenced personally, overseeing a mobile application project targeting a dual platform: iOS and Android. With half the team gone due to corporate restructuring, the product manager set the rest of the team to investigate a better way to maintain the applications.

Delphi looked like the best way out but then came the proverbial fly in the ointment: AWS. Being the primary cloud provider, an integral part of the project was using AWS, yet there was no proper SDK for Delphi. AWS did have SDKs for all the languages favored by open-source programmers, but similar support for commercial compilers like Delphi was nonexistent. 

This thought kindled an idea that the problem was not theirs alone. Many companies using Delphi could be facing this challenge, forcing them to either rebuild or abandon Delphi altogether. Solving this problem could, however, breathe life into Delphi applications in the name of a cloud-centric future.

Question: What advantages does Appercept AWS SDK provide? 

Answer: The SDK for Appercept AWS is designed to work in conjunction with AWS easily, using a component-based Rapid Application Development (RAD)- style approach. The service has advanced AI visual analysis capabilities to identify, analyze, and compare faces, objects, and landmarks. 

The SDK contains everything that a developer expects from an AWS SDK: auto-configuration, credential management, retry, everything but in a way customized to RAD Studio of Delphi. It implements integration into the IDE with context help, configuration tools, and REST components with drag-and-drop for FMX (cross-platform) and VCL (Windows) applications, focusing on making it easy for developers to create reliable cloud-ready applications. 

Question: What is in store for Appercept and Delphi?

Answer: The team is going to keep working on upgrading the SDK by adding other AWS services. “As cloud adoption grows by leaps and bounds, we will help Delphi developers adjust and thrive. Our goal is to place Delphi in the limelight of the cloud-age stage with a legacy of innovation and not of demise.”