I was using Delphi in a shop that did mixed C/C++, VB and Delphi. You'd basically rank the people based on the tool - the wizards using C++ (segfaulting all the way), boot camp folks using VB for testing and mockups, and Delphi was this weird thing also used by testers.

So here's me this Linux guy coming to a Windows shop that came from C/C++ and Turbo Pascal, loving Delphi - and I broke their brain. Naturally instead of investigating if the tool is good, they just write off the person using it. Nothing to see here!

It's one of those things that was ahead of its time (think Smalltalk / Lisp, etc). C++ obviously had (and kind of still has) its place, but Delphi could do 80% or more of that, and in radically less time, code, compile time, etc.