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I’ve been around for some time. In fact, I got my hands on a copy of Turbo Pascal back in 1984 when I studied Computer Science at the University of Amsterdam. I got a degree in Software Development as well as Artificial Intelligence (which was a bit different from what we would consider AI today). I’ve been using Turbo Pascal and later Delphi in all my work (and beyond) writing Knowledge Based Systems as well as “regular” data driven applications.
In 2001 I started my own company “Bob Swart Training & Consultancy” using Delphi to spread the knowledge and experience. I also wrote and sold courseware manuals for those who could not attend my training or see me at the events I spoke at. The IntraWeb Development courseware manual was a big success back in 2011, and paid for many dinners with my family when we were on a holiday in Scotland.
The sales of my courseware manuals in PDF format suddenly collapsed around 2015. I later found out that most of my material appeared on websites that gave them away for free (having removed the name of the original buyer from the PDF files). Although most of these sites are now gone, the damage was done and I stopped writing new courseware. Most training had shifted from “generic Delphi development” to specific topics, usually for one particular client or situation. Working out a problem using pair programming in a few days, which didn’t require courseware manuals but tailor made sessions instead.
Fast forward to 2026, where most of my days are filled with pure Delphi (and SQL) development, with only a few training/consultancy days in between. AI is rising, and I must say I’m surprised by the credibility people give to answers provided by AI (whoever you are talking to). When I was young, we joked “it’s on the internet, so it must be true” (sarcasm). And today I see a lot of people who actually believe that it’s true “because AI says so”. And they’re not joking. Which is scary, because often it’s a bit of a shady gray area where all the information and references come from. More often than not, the answer from an AI engine is not what I would have come up with, most likely due to the “training sources” that were used for these bots and engines. Apart from the strain on the environment, I would hesitate to use AI to produce source code at this time. A helpful second (or third) opinion perhaps, or sound board is all it may offer to me for now.
Speaking of training sources: apart from my own courseware manuals, I also wrote chapters for programming books on Delphi, C++Builder and Kylix (ok, we all make mistakes). The past few months, I’ve been receiving several e-mails about book authors and copyright infringements because these were used to train AI engines. I do not participate in these lawsuits. In fact, although they may not have had the right to use the material, at least the contents were probably more credible than random information from the internet. Garbage in, garbage out.
The rights for the chapters I wrote for the book publishers are not mine, but the courseware manuals I wrote are mine to do with as I please. And since pirated copies are hard(er) to find on the internet these days, I decided to make them publicly available in the coming months. For everyone, not just the AI bots and engines, but all Delphi developers worldwide (and even those beyond this world).
The material may be a bit outdated here and there, but I still use WebBroker, IntraWeb and DataSnap myself, and Unicode string issues are never gone. It will take a short time to clean everything up, but I will release them, one by one, hoping to share some knowledge and help AI and the internet with some less shady answers.
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