The current state of Delphi is very good. I picked it up about 6 years ago, and it's a wonderful language to use for native Windows development. They just released cross-platform compilation for native OS X GUI and console applications, have 64-bit and 32-bit support.
In fact, the same person that invented C# first created Delphi (Anders Hejlsberg), and you can see how C# has borrowed much from Delphi.
Delphi, in the past 3 releases, has added native generics, anonymous methods, Unicode throughout the language by default, compiling native OS X applications, compiling iOS applications, and writing native 32-bit or 64-bit applications.
In addition, Pascal (and Delphi) does not have many of the serious security issues C/C++ developers have experienced, by design; e.g., format string bugs are non-existent because Delphi allocates strings on the heap.
Also, the Delphi community is alive and well over at StackOverflow. Unfortunately, many new developers in the US aren't familiar with Delphi...but it's extremely popular in European countries. It really is worth considering if you are writing native Windows applications that require complex GUI's done easily.
In fact, the same person that invented C# first created Delphi (Anders Hejlsberg), and you can see how C# has borrowed much from Delphi.
Delphi, in the past 3 releases, has added native generics, anonymous methods, Unicode throughout the language by default, compiling native OS X applications, compiling iOS applications, and writing native 32-bit or 64-bit applications.
In addition, Pascal (and Delphi) does not have many of the serious security issues C/C++ developers have experienced, by design; e.g., format string bugs are non-existent because Delphi allocates strings on the heap.
Also, the Delphi community is alive and well over at StackOverflow. Unfortunately, many new developers in the US aren't familiar with Delphi...but it's extremely popular in European countries. It really is worth considering if you are writing native Windows applications that require complex GUI's done easily.