I used to program in Delphi between 1997-1999 and after that I couldn't get even close in terms of productivity with Java. It wasn't the language though, the strongest thing about the Delphi environment was that it was truly comprehensive and you'd just go in and implement your business logic.
Same here. Funny how, 15 years later, there still isn't a competing language/UI builder that can measure up. Xcode + Interface Builder, for example, is a joke compared to Delphi. The first time I used IB, I remember being horrified by how IB requires you to "connect" UI elements to variables, and how it can't even create those variables for you, let alone allow you to add event handlers.